Thomas-C's recent activity
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Comment on Kenshi - Meet the makers in ~games
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Comment on Forums are still alive, active, and a treasure trove of information in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkThank you for settling what Saturday is gonna be about for me. I'm excited to see what sort of arguing folks into homeopathy and credit cards get into. Gotta stop by "Planet of the Vapes", with a...Thank you for settling what Saturday is gonna be about for me. I'm excited to see what sort of arguing folks into homeopathy and credit cards get into. Gotta stop by "Planet of the Vapes", with a name like that.
I can add one to the gaming list - retrogametalk. The forum has some overlap with other communities (like romhacking.net, gbatemp, etc). They post a lot of written material and the forums tend to be consistently active. But, if you register, you'll see something else pop up in the site menu. That spot regularly updates, you can check it once a week or so and always find some stuff got added. Each entry tries to include some info about what all is included, how to use, and where stuff came from. You will want a storage drive handy.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C LinkI went through what got added in updates for Monster Hunter Wilds, and with the advent of the lossless scaling plugin on Linux I got back in the swing of trying to make that game work in a halfway...I went through what got added in updates for Monster Hunter Wilds, and with the advent of the lossless scaling plugin on Linux I got back in the swing of trying to make that game work in a halfway playable fashion on my steam deck.
---project talk---
I think I've gotten as far as I can go. The guide/mod is about as fleshed out as I can make it. I've toggled all the toggles, tried a book's worth of launch commands, tried all the performance mods. If you do everything on that page, on an OLED deck at least, you can have a more or less consistent experience the whole way through and at the endgame. It keeps up across everything the game has to offer.
The trade to make is having to work through input latency and some visual artifacts. On the small screen it looks more crisp. I can't vouch for every weapon, but the stuff I play (sword and shield, long sword) works just as well as on better hardware, I can accomplish the same stuff and get in the zone wailing on things. Menus are a matter of slowing down a little, because there is a permanent lag to it, but I've got it to where that stays consistent too, so it's something you can get used to. It feels a bit slower, so you might find it's easier to play when you're not as alert.
Perhaps ironically, the deck has been the more consistent experience, between it and my better equipped laptop. The laptop got really bad - the game broke for me more than once as updates came out. It feels like I have to do slight adjustments on the settings every single time, to have a stable and smooth picture on that machine. On the deck it just goes along in the same way the whole time, so I ended up playing more on it by a lot.
I was very happy to see it got well received. I found articles on gaming sites I'd never heard of, that's more than the last time I put something out. One guy confirmed I had met my goal by telling me a story of being entertained on a work trip during a difficult period. That was the target, ladies and gentlemen we gottem. If I had to estimate how long it takes to do, if you're comfortable navigating the file system I think you could get it done with a half hour of effort - some of it just involves waiting on a program to work. i can't guarantee results on an LCD model, but what feedback I got indicated it worked well enough for them too.
---game talk---
This afternoon I ended up in a fight with 7 monsters, and the game just kept going right along. I kept up with my target, game didn't chug, we went all over the map.
I was hunting an alpha Doshaguma (think a mammoth and a tiger put together) along with a pack of three others. Eventually I worked him down to where he wandered out to the big sand dunes, where the pack got jumped by two junior Dune worms ("Balahara"). As the alpha got into a turf war with one of the worms, a white feathered dragon ("Arkveld") swooped in, the music changed and the other worm got slapped around. While this is happening, I'm runnin up on my target, getting what few hits I can while having to dodge and slide away from the remaining monsters. It was intense as hell for about a minute, tons of dodging and repositioning with only some occasional hits. Eventually, the lesser doshaguma got into fights with the worms as the alpha broke from the pack. I chased him down, jumped off my bird dog and killed him with one final slap, it was perfect.
At this point, my guy looks like a swashbuckler and I don't really need to take the build further. I like where the updates are going, the harder monsters are fun to do and the ones they've added have been good. The Lagiacrus quest was awesome, I really hope they do more unique stuff like that. I still feel like they haven't hit the edge of where combat can go. I played a mod for a while that made the monsters a teensy bit faster, a bit more aggressive, with some more health and it made every monster a lot more interesting. It needs a little adjusting for the updated stuff but makes the base game a whole lot more fun. Going back, it's that the same heights get hit but for much less time - they could absolutely do an expansion in the same old way, one more map and a few more monsters would be great. More dynamic environmental stuff would only make it more fun, the unique arena stuff was phenomenal.
My only request is gimme more spicy music. I like a lot of it but I'd like some longer, bigger pieces. I enjoy the recomposition of themes from the previous games, monsters gotta have their theme songs, but the loops feel kinda short to me. Some feel like a straight downgrade, because the characteristic instruments are subdued a bit too much - Mizutsune is a good example of that imo. I still enjoy the game as much as I did early on, but I will admit the mod played a big role in that because I hope it foretells what an expansion does. Adding a new move or two on top of those kinds of adjustments would get folks way into it again, I think.
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Comment on How to educate a parent on the internet? in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkThe material isn't anything special, it's whether she is motivated to learn any of it that will ultimately decide things. Ive been the family tech support person, did classes for folks at a...The material isn't anything special, it's whether she is motivated to learn any of it that will ultimately decide things. Ive been the family tech support person, did classes for folks at a library, worked support jobs/did workshops, doing stuff like this has been part of my life forever. If she isn't inspired to do anything herself you are wasting your own time trying to get anything across. You mentioned, "technophobe" and "doesn't take the time", that's key to me. You can give someone the best material in the world and if they don't want to learn, they won't.
I have a relative who is notoriously difficult around stuff like this. On the surface, she will participate in anything you offer, and that experience will almost always seem pretty good. The issue, is that once you're done, she goes back to believing she "doesn't understand computers" and pride prevents her from practicing stuff to get better. So, a week or two later, you'll get a call about the exact same thing you resolved last time, and she will totally just repeat the same, entire experience as if the first time never happened. I stopped trying to teach anything, configured a machine to just do the stuff she knew, and after that almost never heard from her about it.
It isn't that tough to learn how to navigate and avoid sketchy stuff. I'm inclined to think, what you already found is probably solid, and it's down to whether she's really willing to engage with it. If she's not, you can still assist with a safer machine if you have that time, or, you may just need to ditch the issue and approach it later around a different circumstance/through a different opportunity. It is very easy for folks to see learning as punishment when it comes about after them making a mistake. Might be you get more buy-in by waiting for her to get curious and seizing upon that.
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Comment on Experiences with psychedelics? in ~life
Thomas-C LinkI never regularly messed with psychedelics but when I did it was great, every time. I'll just give you all of em, chronologically. The first time, I had a moment in which something just sort of...I never regularly messed with psychedelics but when I did it was great, every time. I'll just give you all of em, chronologically.
The first time, I had a moment in which something just sort of fell into place in my mind, and a wave of contentedness overwhelmed me. By "contentedness" I don't mean a positive, euphoric sort of thing, but rather the absence of all negative. The negative did not matter, none of it felt big enough to matter. I did not hallucinate an image, rather I had an all consuming feeling of being but one small thing within an unfathomably large thing. And, simultaneously, I felt i was myself. As I was in this space an image came together. I can't describe the image to you, because I can't find the words. I can't draw it, because it was fluid and changing. The sight is not what struck though, it's that the sight emerged from the feeling, is the best I can put together for that.
It was not euphoric, nor was it disturbing. Nothing in particular emerged from it, it never became anything, I was just sort of suspended in this state for an amount of time I could not perceive. I felt the okayest I had ever felt. I became OK, the concept, the ideal.
This experience stayed with me. It is something I remember sometimes when things wear at my nerves and when shit gets difficult. Folks I talk to don't know it, but I sometimes tell them "God is pretty ok" and mean it in a completely different sense. When I've taken the time to describe the experience to more devout people, some of them have said I witnessed something. I don't believe so, but I felt it, I lived it, so it doesn't really matter either way. The memory is there, the feeling is something I can recall, and it does what it does.
The second time was just as good but in a different way. I took my dog for a walk as the sun was setting. Where we were, it was a bunch of small restaurants, apartments, a downtown sort of area. We just walked along, and it was the most beautiful couple of hours. The sky was gorgeous, the lights from the cars and the street bounced across everything, the smells would come and go, the wind felt good in the humid heat. The buildings had cool shapes, the people were all nice to us, we walked along a park and the trees' rustling was like a warm blanket. We got back to my friend's apartment, played diablo 3 and ate sausage poboys. I slept on his couch, put in headphones and looked around on my phone. When I couldn't make a decision, I said "fuck it Dark Side of the Moon" and man that was the best time I have ever heard that album, goddamn. My sense of time was just gone, so it was like just being inside the music, until those fucking alarm clocks went off. But, by the time my brain connected the dots to hit the >15s button, they were over and I was back in it. I didn't hallucinate this time, there was no imagery. I could tell the squiggly weirdness was happening but it was too dark for anything to take shape.
The third time, I was living with a crazy artist woman in an illegal apartment. We did it together, and spent the evening painting things. At first we were painting on paper but then we decided we would paint things like cups and jars and stuff, "things patterns are for" was how she put it. We sat on the kitchen floor painting every cup and jar we could find well past midnight. Instead of going to bed we brought some blankets into the room for later (we were not at all tired) and kept painting. Eventually we did both start to get sleepy, right about when the sun was coming up. We ended up moving to the living room and slept on the couch together. The feeling of this other person was so nice that every time I started to wake up I would drift back to sleep because I was so comfortable. She was doing the same thing so we just continued to be asleep until the next day. There is a whole other layer to this story I am politely leaving out, but let me tell you, wow, omg, damn. Wew. We got up at like 2am the next day, and demolished a bag of pizza rolls. I went to work later, did my things, life carried on as normal but occasionally, we would share a look, and whatever plans each of us had that evening would mysteriously fall through.
Finally, the last time, I was living in my own space, just me and my dog. A friend had given me a gift, and so I set aside a couple of days and decided to take a trip. This one was heavy on the hallucinations, lots of squiggly weirdness and angles in things. I put on an album, "Departure Songs" by Hammock, and drew pictures while I just sorta floated along with it. Drawing was really fun in that state. It felt like the paper was moving around, so when I would draw a line and it would be straight I felt really good about it. I didn't draw anything in particular, just patterns and shapes and whatever. My dog started to play so I went and played with her, for like an hour. I remember her face being all wobbly and weird, sometimes her eyes would look bigger in a really funny way. She had a great time, lots of pets and treats and tumbling around. Eventually I went to my bedroom, and listened to a different album, "Does it Look Like I'm Here" by Emeralds and got way lost in it, and eventually drifted off to sleep. Just an all around pleasant time, a good evening.
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Comment on The rise of video game doomerism in ~games
Thomas-C LinkI tend to stay far away from the realm of synthetic men and whatever an "endymion" is. I went down a hole on those types of creators for a bit out of curiosity and felt like I was flashbacking to...- Exemplary
I tend to stay far away from the realm of synthetic men and whatever an "endymion" is. I went down a hole on those types of creators for a bit out of curiosity and felt like I was flashbacking to shit from middle school, when it wasn't thinly veiled culture war nonsense and/or outright depression.
Their brand of "discourse" to me is like listening to folks beg a dealer for more personalized drugs. They're not interested in design or craft, know practically nothing of production/creativity, and can only barely articulate what they actually want to see because half of the criticism is cover for "make me the target audience". The videos, more often than not, are just them reading articles you can find yourself on any major gaming site - there's zero depth of thought to it. They never show up in communities where folks make things, and will even go as far as to say mods and such are bad because they "aren't the original vision", as if the thing they endlessly complain about is sacrosanct (fuckin what).
Imo, the state of the industry is basically irrelevant. It is so big and has existed long enough that anything you could want is probably out there in some form or other. How you engage, what you engage with, is far more important than whatever trends places like EA, Ubisoft, etc are pursuing. If you take the step of doing mods, or making your own, you can just have everything you want and discuss the merits of ideas with folks of like mind and similar preference.
Right now, for example, Morrowind, a game from 23 years ago is being expanded with Tamriel Rebuilt. Diablo 2 can be overhauled to suit just about any weird little preference you have (I have lots of weird preferences, trust me bro). You can take a game like STALKER and turn it into a survivalist military sim. Even with a current game, like Monster Hunter, you can change up how it plays and make it work on hardware it was never meant to support. You can go to a forum and grab every single game for every single system you ever wanted, and stuff like romhacks, texture packs, etc. Did you like Final Fantasy Tactics? Check out FF Hacktics, or play Tactics Ogre: One Vision. Like pokemon? There's more romhacks than there are original titles, designed by all manner of player to cater to practically any version of taste.
In my opinion, part of resisting the algorithmic internet is engaging with intent, and it just so happens to be that with gaming you can accomplish a two-fer. You can engage with intent, restructure your time in a more satisfying way and, just like the games themselves, be consistently rewarded for your effort with cool shit you can keep forever if you've got a few storage drives. Depending on the game, you can make a version just for you/your kids and have a unique experience together. We do not have to let the Doomslop Industrial Complex eat up the hobby, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C LinkYesterday Shokuho was released, so I've been knee deep in that to the extent I can be. It's just unbelievable what these folks have made. Here are a few screenshots I took from the deck. Shokuho...Yesterday Shokuho was released, so I've been knee deep in that to the extent I can be. It's just unbelievable what these folks have made. Here are a few screenshots I took from the deck.
Shokuho is a total conversion mod for Bannerlord, set in Japan in 1568. Along with the new setting, they integrated features from other popular mods and expanded the game in really every aspect. The campaign map is about 5 times the size of what you got in vanilla Bannerlord, with over 50 cities and 150+ castles. It is the whole of Japan, minus the northern island/Ainu, but it straight up says on the map screen that's a work in progress/it's coming. When you set up the campaign, you can choose whether you want the historical battles to play out or just go freeplay with it, and from there you can choose who you want to join up with or go it alone in the typical Mount and Blade sort of way.
I decided to do my usual and be a filthy bandit. Motafukaru Gorogunaku, whose banner is white with a big red O on it, has made his way in the world picking corpses and convincing looters to go with him through the age old art of slapping them until they do it. The corpse picking is a legit thing in Shokuho - when a battle large enough concludes, there will be a spot left open on the map to go to, and you can find various bits of loot, get jumped by other bandits, etc. The basic progression is just as it was in Bannerlord, but there is more to get into and the tactical situation is pretty much totally different.
With respect to gear and character building, you are much closer to being a glass cannon by default than anything else. There are no handheld shields, and armor tends to be focused on the chest and head (location based damage matters). You can get something like a horo for your back (it's crazy expensive) and that's about it for protection beyond your armor. As well, it being 1568 means you can get guns. They're very slow to use but awesome to deploy - a full volley aimed well absolutely shreds. In the campaign mode, along with aspiring to vassalage or forming your own kingdom, you can do a full career as a mercenary or as an enlisted soldier/officer in someone else's army. There are more quests, both in number and type, so you can also just sort of go adventuring and get into shit.
Along with starting a campaign I did some custom battles, to see the castle sieges and naval battles. Both are very impressive. The castle sieges are especially fun, because they operate almost totally differently from Bannerlord. Instead of marching up on a castle with siege towers and trebuchet-ing the walls, the castles are typically up on steep cliffs and surrounded by multiple gates. To win the siege you have to push through, gate to gate, and when you're on the defensive you might have to do that against multiple fronts. It's a totally different tactical situation and the troop trees have a lot more options. Naval combat is completely new to the game, no one has done it prior (that I know of) and the Shokuho team beat out the devs to implementing it. I'm terrible at it but it's just a matter of learning what I need to be paying attention to.
On the level of aesthetics I don't think they could have done a better job. The maps are gorgeous, the music is great, the dedication to a realistic portrayal goes a long way toward making you feel like you really are just wandering around in a different time and place. And, other mods work with it, so I could keep stuff like an over-the-shoulder camera and my dedicated button for yelling at people. The RTS camera works too, so you can flip between the usual action-rpg setup and something akin to Total War - literally, this setup is what one of my friends and I would daydream about doing matches in Shogun Total War ages ago, it's so cool.
I can say for sure this is gonna be something I get into for a while. It's like getting a whole new game in the franchise, a project that reminds me of the best of Warband. Warband had a similar mod, Gekokujo - it's like getting a sequel to that. And with the way it's been built, it's all but guaranteed other modders will make their stuff compatible, so it will grow and expand even further (likely pretty quickly too). It takes minimal setup to get going (download a few mods, put them in a folder, check some boxes, done) and performance is more or less in line with the vanilla game. The campaign map chugs a bit (because it's massive) but battles and towns and things are pretty much the same. Works just fine on the steam deck too. I've had it crash once in a few hours of play - for a mod project, for Bannerlord, that's great lol. I can't wait to see what else is in it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkI thought I'd be done with Bannerlord for a time, but turns out I'm not. I'd intended to just do some combat to train up my characters, but things quickly developed into what I suppose is the next...I thought I'd be done with Bannerlord for a time, but turns out I'm not. I'd intended to just do some combat to train up my characters, but things quickly developed into what I suppose is the next chapter of the story. Here is yet another collection of fun shots.
In the spirit of it I figured I'd recount what happened in a more storybook sort of way.
The story as of today
It is the summer of the year 1115. A messenger arrived from Beniseth in the Scheme Room - Tharos, the leader of the Vizartos clan, was dead. The assassin had been completely successful; no one knew of him. His wife Comatasa had been elevated to the position of leadership. Tyranae returned the messenger to Beniseth with a simple directive - Help Comatasa join her husband in hell.
Tharos was only recently elevated to clan leadership. His predecessor Sichanis was a storied war leader, before and after his clan joined the kingdom of Grandis Larcennae. Multiple times, he led his own armies, conquered territory and provided support to King Mallgoth directly. He passed away in his late 50's, a victim of time. Tharos was less remarkable. Though also a war commander, he never led an army, and did not provide much support himself to either Sichanis or Mallgoth's forces. When Yanagoth rampaged and eliminated Vlandia from history, he was not present in her armies. When Sichanis passed away in 1114, Tharos' ascension was the result of formality and procedure, not the result of extraordinary service or glorious deeds.
Not everyone can be in the siege. The heroic halls do not accommodate many. But for one of such little reputation to demand Tyranae abdicate, to demand those who built the realm should give it away...at the very least, be someone first, before becoming something. That was the central, guiding wisdom of her father - to say to the world, "this is who I shall be" and waver not once in that commitment. Any time Tyranae thought of him, she would remember his wisdom. "Rip and tear, until one is finished," he would often say, "and make sure they see your teeth... oh, and stomp their shit so bad they don't fuck with you again, yeah." The words never left her.
Tyranae had marched with the infantry in Yanagoth's sieges, and the cavalry out in the field for the entirety of the war. She pushed the battering ram at Ostican while her mother charged its gate. In the final struggle at Hertogea, she was among the first through its blasted walls and fought through to the keep. Abdication was unacceptable, the thought of it was odious. So, without hesitation she opened the doors to the Scheme Room and set about eliminating this possibility.
Game talk/New Rules
Tyranae knew she could win, so she stomped, and that means assassinating the leaders of the rebel clan until I get one who understands the score. It's *my* game, like hell some AI dipshit is gonna get an opportunity to drive my kingdom to ruin. It happened to be too, that just prior to my scheme working, we got invaded by the Western Empire (I suppose they were taking advantage of the change of leadership). The war was a good opportunity to solidify the good relationships and isolate the folks trying to rebel. The Scheme Room is supercharged in this context - what used to be a coin flip is now a 9 in 10 sort of move, because it's our kingdom. We know where the targets are better than anyone.I decided I would not utilize the giant hoard of money to change any of my relations with folks. We only grow stronger through battle, that is our way. Now that there is a history to it, I've decided to imagine some more about the characters. Along with that I've set myself the rule that I have to abide by the personalities I create for them. I can't do what's optimal for the game, unless it happens to fit with the characters.
The four siblings all fought together in the last war, each joining as they came of age and all until its end, so they have an unbreakable bond and commitment to mutual advancement. Whether that bond is stronger than the obligations of leadership remains to be seen. Tyranae is daring and cruel, with a deep attachment to her father. Bolverkr is brutish but also very intelligent. Porg... is Porg. He came like that. The only thing Mallgoth was bad at was siege engine production, and Porg is a specialist in siege engine production. He goes his own way. Kalevala idolizes her mom and sticks close to her sister.
That all means:
As ruler, Tyranae is willing to be just as meticulously ruthless as her parents, but pulls the trigger sooner. Where before I might have spared a rebel faction for a while instead I am immediately moving to destroy it. Mallgoth would have done the same, but only when his wife found the most opportune moment. Too, Mallgoth would find rebellion nostalgic, and would have wanted to see it play out a bit.(It's also the case the rebellion wouldn't have occurred because no one dared fuck with Mallgoth, the four-time king slayer. I've decided his "peasant legend nickname" is "The Last Battanian", and he is famous for saying "There can be only one!")
Bolverkr fights in the infantry, and thanks to the Warlord Pack (mod) reads books (his skills are growing faster than everyone's). Porg fights with exotic weapons, dresses in ostentatious desert kingdom armor, and comes in clutch when we're sieging. Kalevala wears her mother's armor, trains Roguery and Tactics (for the Scheme Room), and often does arena battles. They're all young - Tyranae is the oldest at 23, Kalevala the youngest at 19. The war experience set them up to handle big war parties and the desert adventure honed their martial prowess.
The other two children, Plibbert and Petunia, are significantly younger at 13 and 11. They have not been old enough to fight, and they've not consistently been with the rest of the family since they were 7 and 5. Yanagoth also had them when she was in her early 40's. Plibbert is unstable - I chose his stats at random. Petunia is cunning and silver-tongued, with some points in Roguery and Persuasion. Their only attachment is to each other. Plibbert causes a bunch of shit and Petunia uses wit and guile to get him out of it. It's highly unlikely I'll be able to play as them for a very long time, but the chance exists. Permanent death has always been possible for every character, just way unlikely for younger folks.
The Diplomacy mod is what enables the intrigue, and Fourberie is what allows me to respond to it in the way I've decided. The Western Empire looks like the best target, and I think the deal is that we're going to base our next grand strategic goal on how that goes - if it's easy, then I suppose conquest of all the Imperial lands will follow. If it strains the internal relationships of Grandis Larcennae, I'll have more scheming to do.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C Link ParentYes I want to know the horse story, please tell me the horse story lolYes I want to know the horse story, please tell me the horse story lol
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkThis week I played out the grand finale of my Bannerlord campaign. The screenshots are scattered throughout to enhance your reading experience. When it hit me, "this is it, we ball" I moved to my...- Exemplary
This week I played out the grand finale of my Bannerlord campaign. The screenshots are scattered throughout to enhance your reading experience. When it hit me, "this is it, we ball" I moved to my home PC so they'd look a bit nicer. I also split this into two sections - the end of the story, and then some talk about the game/mods/etc.
-Finale-
Where I last left off, Mallgoth had been crowned king of the Grandis Larcennae and began accumulating both territory and followers, in the year 1103. From 1103 to 1107, we fought a series of defensive wars, first against Vlandia, then the Western Empire, then both together, and then just Vlandia. Each time, Mallgoth led an army to defend against their invasions and then pushed into their territory - every conflict resulted in wrecked armies and some form of territorial loss for the attackers. By 1105, they were both getting beaten so badly they were made to pay tribute. Eventually the Western Empire just quit trying. Vlandia though would not stop, because they hated Mallgoth too much. By 1105, every Vlandian noble clan had maximum distaste for him, a "-100" relationship.
Across the same stretch of time, in between wars Mallgoth traveled the region and convinced his former rebel compatriots to join him. In total, 11 more clans joined his kingdom, for the low price of [like 30 million total] denars. He awarded fiefs to his two most loyal companions, which grew the kingdom by 2 more clans. Yanagoth, despite being in her early 40's had two more children, Plibbert and Petunia. The wars were opportunities; they helped our military grow into an elite fighting force and drained the enemies of their resources. We picked up shitloads of gear, goods, and
prisonersstone mine professionals.In 1109, after a temporary peace King Erdurand (the fourth ruler) of Vlandia declared war again, and this time instead of defending Mallgoth gathered an army and headed straight into their territory. He beseiged and took one castle, then headed out for a second, named Hongard. Hongard was tougher than most, with a strong garrison, upgraded walls, and lots of militia. We'd pushed Vlandia westward, which meant the campaign actually got a lot harder, because the westward settlements had been upgraded/improved quite a lot.
Mallgoth charged ahead on his trusty horse Scrotecrusher (a mod lets you progress/name your horse), and chopped the outer gate open himself. He is that fast and that strong; before the ram could get to the gate he'd broken it open. With his men he chopped open the inner gate, and then himself accrued over 100 kills. His skill with the zweihander had reached a point where playing as him felt like some sort of B movie - I could just mash the button, wave the sword around and everyone in front of me got killed/dismembered. If they had a wooden shield, it would shatter on the second hit and dude would just die, every time. Eventually we fully breached the castle, and the survivors fled to the keep.
In the keep, we ran down halls and up circular staircases slicing through knights and crossbowmen. Mallgoth led the charge, racing ahead to get to the lord's bedchamber. As he cut down the guards on one end of the last hall, a crossbowman leaned out at the other end, fired, and hit Mallgoth in the neck. He was killed instantly, and because he was an older character, this time it was for real. Mallgoth was dead. His wife Yanagoth led the squad from there, massacred the remaining Vlandians and laid Mallgoth to rest. With unanimous support from the clans, she was crowned the first Queen of the Grandis Larcennae. Here is a photo of them together.
Overcome with grief and vengeful bloodlust, Yanagoth disbanded the army after the castle was seized, gathered the most elite of the elite, and went on a rampage through Vlandian lands, burning villages and beheading every noble she could catch. Eventually, she found Erdurand along the western coast, bested him in combat and took him prisoner. Vlandia offered peace - she refused, and beheaded him.
This happened in the summer of 1109, just one season out from Tyranae's coming of age. After beheading Erdurand, Vlandia pled for peace and this time were heard, because Yanagoth needed time to build her forces for what would be a three year total war against Vlandia. Tyranae, Bolverkr, Porg, and Kalevala all came of age during this time, and so joined Yanagoth on her quest for vengeance. The began at the southern end of Vlandia and just worked their way up, pushing them into the northwestern, coastal town of Ostican. When Ostican fell, they had no choice but to retreat to their final hold, a castle far to the south called Hertogea. This was her goal: To force a retreat across a wide swathe of our territory, so that many of the surviving nobles would get scooped up by guard patrols and our other noble war parties.
At Hertogea in 1113, Yanagoth deployed four trebuchets and destroyed the castle walls. 2200 troops flooded in from two directions and massacred everyone. Exhausted, and with support for the war seriously waning, they conquered Hertogea and eliminated the kingdom of Vlandia from history.
With her mission complete, Yanagoth returned to the highlands, assigned her troops out to her companions' war parties, gave Tyranae Mallgoth's zweihander, and then the two of them headed for The Retreat, a cave high in the mountains where hermits live. There, Yanagoth bid her daugher farewell, and left the kingdom for a life of quiet contemplation. Tyranae, at 22, became the second queen of Grandis Larcennae. She, Bolverkr, Porg, and Kalevala, accompanied by two of Yanagoth's former companions, strapped up and set out for the southern desert, to live as Mallgoth did and train their combat skills against brigands and highwaymen.
There was actually a bit of an epilogue with that. We traveled south to the desert, and visited King Unqid of the Aserai (think Saracens), one of the original rulers (he is 74 years old) and the only king who actually liked Mallgoth. We fought in a tournament with his family, and then ventured out, where we were ambushed by none other than a remnant of a Vlandian clan, dey Rothad. Dey Rothad in particular had been a thorn in Mallgoth's side, as their leader, Dagunic, had successfully murdered more than one of his companions back when Grandis Larcennae was just starting out. We defeated Dagunic, beheaded him and camped in one of the Aserai villages.
And that I think is where I will declare the game is over. For now, at least. I archived the mod pack + version of the game so I could come back to it at some point. Theoretically, I could let the game just go on its own, abdicate leadership and let Grandis Larcennae go its own way. I could pick it back up as one of Plibbert's children and develop a new campaign from there. Warsails comes out next month so I know I'll be playing more Bannerlord. Perhaps when the mods catch up to it I'll load this save and see how that works out. Here is a final little collection of fun shots.
-Mods-
I have to give some credit to folks too, the mods made this what it was. The unmodded game is great for what it is, but enough people made enough things that you can touch just about everything it does, from the combat camera up through what kingdoms and armies do. I went for expanding on the game's systems, like more meat on the existing bones sort of thing, and making combat look like 300.In particular, I think these contributed the most to that experience: Diplomacy, Fourberie, War & AI Tweaks, Immersive Battlefield, Reinforcement System, Open Source Armory (all of it), Realistic Battle Mod (and the "Smart Patch"), Dismemberment+, Artem's Lively Animations, Cinematic Combat, Xorberax's Legacy (for the shoulder camera), Realistic Weather, and of course Zweihanders.
Putting those together I think would give you like 85% of it. If you go through doing that you'll be able to pick the other 15% and have a really fun time. Mods are easy to get and install, you just put a folder somewhere and check a box 95% of the time. The other 5% is just load order/organizational stuff, nothing huge. Folks put out good enough instructions.
Also have to give some credit to the youtube channel Tactical Enlightenment. I think his approach, of micromanaging divisions and intentionally raising stakes made the game tremendously more fun to play. Being able to comfortably win a 3:1 or 4:1 encounter in the field means blasting through the early game, and being able to successfully defend 5:1 and 6:1 in sieges means doing the same with the early years of having a kingdom.
In this campaign, the hardest battle I fought was a defensive siege in which I was outnumbered 7:1. I organized my troops similar to what TE does - squares of infantry at the bottom of staircases and near the gate, with divisions of archers behind and off the walls. For the opening minutes of the siege I'd man a catapult to take out their siege towers, then hurl big rocks at folks while they rammed the gate. When the gate was breached, an infantry square just next to the open door would pull the enemy into it while archers shot at the enemy's back. When the enemy would try to rush us, I'd move the square through the enemy's advancing units to plug the gate, and when I could not singlehandedly keep them from flowing in I'd have archers draw steel and charge in for support. We never lost a settlement, either to enemy armies or to rebellion, and pretty much every major battle was amazing.
Obviously I very much love Bannerlord and would recommend it to anybody even remotely interested in medieval stuff. The modding community has produced really good work, and the game is continuing to develop despite being around for many years. The expansion, War Sails comes out next month and introduces naval warfare along with systems for stuff like blockades and ship-to-ship combat. It'll probably break like 90% of the existing mods, but one good thing is they do provide prior game versions to roll back to if you want to (I did my campaign with 1.2.12).
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Comment on How do you decide when to buy a new computer, smartphone, etc.? in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkWith computers, I'll look into an upgrade every third GPU release. So for example, my current machine has a 3070ti, which means I'll wait for a 6-series before I even consider buying new hardware....With computers, I'll look into an upgrade every third GPU release. So for example, my current machine has a 3070ti, which means I'll wait for a 6-series before I even consider buying new hardware. Its not that the GPU is central to what I'm doing (though it is important), it's that by the time we've had a few new series everything else has improved/kept pace, it's just an easy/simple way to set a threshold for looking around.
With phones I just use it until its problems outweigh its benefits. As in, I don't wait for it to be unusable, I wait for it to get annoying. I have to use this cursed mini-monolith all the time so it's more about what a day with it is like than it is "does this work at all", if that makes sense. If I'm spending the day having to fiddle and be annoyed I'll look around and see what I can find. i have a high tolerance for jank so that tends to work out to every three or four years or so.
With both kinds of devices I will always go after open-box/returns/refurbs too. Sometimes you can get pretty lucky, especially around/after big holidays.
I will say, my calculus around this has changed significantly in the past three or four years. I do not want a device with an ai assistant, a lot of hardware has been disappointing/lame, and a bunch of software has also been really lame. At this point, though it's around the usual time I'd be looking, I'm not. Instead I'm looking at components and replacement parts, because I happen to be able to do that sort of stuff myself. I intend to keep my current setup going for as long as I can maintain it, given how little I care about what's coming out today.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkContinuing along in Bannerlord, here are some more screenshots Last week, I finished out with seizing a Vlandian castle, and pretty much immediately began a campaign of terror to weaken Vlandia,...Continuing along in Bannerlord, here are some more screenshots
Last week, I finished out with seizing a Vlandian castle, and pretty much immediately began a campaign of terror to weaken Vlandia, both in terms of its prosperity and military. Seizing the castle made them hostile again, but my constant incitement of rebellions meant their attention was split between the castle and two cities. Cities are far more valuable to hold, so I avoided having to conduct a defense of the castle and could instead spend the time creating and reinforcing my own military. I named a governor, laid out a queue of projects, and split my party into 4. Each party was given about 100 elite troops, and defended the villages of our little region while I trained up more troops and filled the garrison.
Turns out, you can access the Scheme Room from the castle, and Mallgoth's wife Yanagoth is just about perfectly suited for being its manager. The network we built inciting rebellions allowed me to spy on Vlandia, so when they formed armies I would dispatch assassins to either kidnap or kill the army captains. While those schemes unfolded, I traveled to the cities they held and along with rebellions, I poisoned the water, destroyed the food, and sapped the walls. At the same time, the Southern Empire declared war on Vlandia, so I was able to do this mostly unimpeded for weeks and continued dumping money on the cities when they went independent. Over time, Vlandia went from fielding multiple 1000+ armies to barely managing one at 400. I assisted their enemies' armies and ambushed their nobles, eventually filling the castle dungeon with over 30 of their commanders.
With Vlandia distracted and severely weakened, I decided to further set up an advantage in the Highlands by going after the Battanians. They'd been on the decline for a while, and had reached a point of no return (as in, no way they'd ever recover given the forces surrounding them). I took their king Caladog and beheaded him, then paid off his successor and let Vlandia crush what remained of their kingdom. This meant Vlandia became overextended - they held more cities but only barely. With the Battanians gone, their clans dispersed and were absorbed into the other kingdoms, and Mallgoth became the last surviving clan leader, the unofficial Last King of Battania.
I renamed our clan, from "Shitteeth" to a more lore friendly "fen Cythraul Uffar", which per some silly internetting might be Welsh for "hellish demon". I continued the campaign of wearing down the highland cities until eventually, three were in active rebellion all at once. At this moment, I saw the opportunity to jump higher - a city, Car Banseth, had less than 100 men in its garrison. On my own, I couldn't actually take the city (sieges are tough as shit), but together with my war parties, I could. I sent a messenger to the castle, and declared us a new kingdom: "The Kingdom of Grandis Larcennae". Then I called forth my parties and took Car Banseth.
Declaring oneself a kingdom is a big step. It changes a lot of relationships as well as diplomatic options for resolving conflict. I set up non-aggression pacts with anyone opposing Vlandia, and pushed the advantage by finding and assisting their armies. Mallgoth made his first friend, a rebel leader named Rhylan, who owned the city neighboring our castle. Vlandia eventually quelled the rebellions, but kept a lot of the leaders as governors, because every time they'd elect a Vlandian noble I'd have them assassinated. Rhylan was integrated into Vlandia but remained Mallgoth's friend, so though the city was technically hostile they didn't try to pull shit with us. On the rare occasion id encounter Rhylan in battle, I'd charge out and club him unconscious with a hammer to ensure he survived, and then set him free after we won/took prisoners, which preserved our relationship. Eventually, I snuck into the city and met with Rhylan. I gifted him the hammer, and convinced him to defect and join our kingdom, so his town became my town.
Then, one more opportunity opened up. Another town, Pen Cannoc, ended up in the same position as Car Banseth, so we sieged it and took it. This time, with their military pretty much destroyed, Vlandia's king Armund tried to lead a force to take it back. I charged out the gates with my war parties, massacred his forces in the field and took him prisoner.
At this point, Mallgoth has been such a scourge that just about everyone who began with Vlandia in this campaign is dead. Armund was the successor after Mallgoth beheaded their last two kings. I needed to ease up to manage our new cities so I tried to see, what would they offer for him, but the offer was shitty so I beheaded him too. Their fourth leader, Queen Firzana, offered to make peace and pay us 600k (an absurd amount) as war reparations. I took the deal, because I wanted to say Mallgoth got paid for being a terrorist. Despite being at peace, I continued to send out saboteurs and spies to ruin their nobles' reputations and keep their armies from forming, and fomented rebellion in the towns nearest us. I convinced two more clans to join, which added a total of eight more war parties to our military. By putting my war prisoners to work in the stone mines I've amassed a gigantic pile of money, and the castle + three cities are all growing quickly thanks to Mallgoth's companions being spec'd for good governorship.
At this point, Mallgoth is 50 years old. He has made enemies of practically every noble clan, and his only friends are his former companions + the three clans who joined us. I've decided, he will bear the weight of conquest, stain his hands forever with blood so that his daughter, Tyranae, will inherit a large and prosperous kingdom. She is 12, so we have at least six years to go hard and get all we can, provided age/sickness doesn't take Mallgoth out before then. My goal is to claim all of the former Battanian cities so that when she takes the throne, she will be the first queen of the Highlands, and together with her siblings and Mallgoth's advisers she'll scour Vlandia from the earth.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C Link ParentThe graphics are unmodded. It runs great on the steam deck so all of those are from it. Sometimes it can look a little wonky between weathers and times of day but most of the time it looks great....The graphics are unmodded. It runs great on the steam deck so all of those are from it. Sometimes it can look a little wonky between weathers and times of day but most of the time it looks great. One mod imo everyone should get is the fire arrows. It's purely a visual change, and makes nighttime sieges/battles look incredible.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkHere are some fun screenshots from various moments in my ongoing Bannerlord campaign. This past week, I tried to continue my strategic goal of destroying Vlandia, and ended up in deep shit...Here are some fun screenshots from various moments in my ongoing Bannerlord campaign.
This past week, I tried to continue my strategic goal of destroying Vlandia, and ended up in deep shit inciting rebellions across their periphery. Along with that, I have become a notorious criminal, so throughout all my activity I am regularly having to thwart attempts to assassinate my companions and sabotage my army.
On the island where my hideout is located, there are three cities: Omor, Varcheg, and Reyvl. I went to each of them, befriended the local bandit gangs, and worked those relationships by engaging in various bandit related activities. Heists, insurance scams, tavern brawling, and pit fights, mostly. By doing these, I grew my relations until I could challenge the leaders in each city. I won, and installed companions as new gang leaders, which opened up running a Criminal Enterprise, an alternative to the hideout stuff I'd been doing earlier. I relocated my main base to Omor, and opened up smuggling operations, gambling dens, and brothels. Then, I went back out to the highlands, which have been slowly overtaken by Vlandia in its effort to seize more territory.
Thanks to the enhanced bandit network I could establish relations with the gang leaders in the highland towns, and over time opened up the option to incite rebellion in each of them. One by one, I traveled to each town and drove them to the point of rebelling against their lords. When that happens each city becomes independent, and the controlling empire always sends an army to try to retake the city. I gave the rebels piles of money and food and stuck around to help their defense. It was in one of these, a city called Seonon, where I fought what's been the hardest battles of the game thus far.
When Seonon rebelled, the first siege attempt simply wasn't up to snuff. Not enough people, not good enough at building siege engines. We crushed them before they could reach the gates with well placed catapult shots and ambushes. Some time later, a second army showed up led by the king of Vlandia himself, Derthert. When the siege took place they built a trebuchet and managed to destroy part of the city wall. When the actual siege battle commenced, I decided to lead a division of cavalry through the gap in the wall and charged Derthert himself. We got him, scrambled back to the city and successfully defended against the rest of his forces. When the battle was over I beheaded Derthert and triggered what turned out to be four more sieges.
By the sixth siege we were losing momentum. I got stuck in a battle of attrition. The enemy was able to keep up with our siege weapons, so I led ambushes to destroy their towers and battering rams, over and over and over again for weeks, until they ran low on food and opted to attack without them. By that point we simply didn't have enough men - I led my infantry in a square formation, and fought to the last at the city gates. When the battle was over, we successfully escaped as Vlandia retook the city and I left to go rebuild my forces. While I was out in the field I actually spotted Derthert's successor Alfric, recruiting out in some peripheral villages. We were outnumbered, 2:1, but I couldn't let the opportunity go and engaged him.
This battle was rough. i commanded six divisions - two infantry, two ranged, horse archers, cavalry. The map had a lot of ridges, so I positioned my archers behind one, and the infantry in square formations on its left and right. Leading the horse archers and cavalry, I baited Alfric's army into running up and over the ridge, where my archers picked them off as the infantry tore through their flanks and cavalry ran along their rear. Because we were still outnumbered I pulled everyone back, and drew the enemy down into a valley. With archers firing from a ridge behind us, and the infantry keeping them busy in the valley, I led the cavalry around and sandwiched them, managing to slap Alfric myself with a zweihander I'd named "Retirement Plan". We won, captured Alfric and beheaded him. Though the kingdoms all fight each other, they typically don't kill each other's nobles, so beheading two kings has put me at odds with about half the realm's noble clans regardless of their allegiances.
Across this time Yanagoth gave birth to four children (two sons and two daughters): Tyranae, Bolverkr, Porg, and Kalevala. Mallgoth is 40 at this point, so we should be good for succession if he survives about another decade. With the Six Sieges and Alfric having depleted my forces I've been back on the island, eradicating barbarian hordes to train up more troops. The highland cities continue to rebel, which is whittling away Vlandia's forces. Beheading their last two kings has disrupted the balance of power among their noble clans, so they also can't organize as well as they could in the past. My bandit network includes gangs in all the highland cities - I conduct sabotage and assassination attempts against the lords while they try (and often fail) to retake them.
Edit: Today I was fortunate to have some extra time, and pulled off something I did not expect. There was a castle in between two of the towns I've been causing a ruckus in, that ended up depleted of its garrison to the point I could siege it successfully with just my warband. We took the castle, and now I'm filling it with elite troops. Vlandia has to choose now, city or castle, and if they go for the castle I'll get a third king if I have to.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C Link ParentIf you want to get into the spirit a bit, check out a YouTube channel called Tactical Enlightenment some time. He does lots of gigantic battles with all kinds of demonstrations, with a smattering...If you want to get into the spirit a bit, check out a YouTube channel called Tactical Enlightenment some time. He does lots of gigantic battles with all kinds of demonstrations, with a smattering of historical talk and discussion about various tactical maneuvers. I've been watching through his Peasant Revolt playthrough and it got me trying some super fun stuff in my own battles.
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Comment on For the atheists of Tildes, do you feel the need to show gratitude for comforts of your life and how do you do it? in ~talk
Thomas-C LinkSure, in some pretty simple ways. I try to express gratitude through seizing upon opportunities, to enhance, cultivate, share, etc the various things which I feel bring me joy or contribute nicely...Sure, in some pretty simple ways. I try to express gratitude through seizing upon opportunities, to enhance, cultivate, share, etc the various things which I feel bring me joy or contribute nicely to stuff. It's hard to talk about outside a specific example, because there is no ritual I do nor a saying I use. I just try to keep my self interest/intuition tuned toward looking for those opportunities, and put aside what i consider petty/irrelevant/etc. Most days, I wake up, and while I stretch and meditate I take time to think about what I am most thankful for. Not because I owe anything to anything, nor fear anything's disappearance, but because it sets me up to keep looking in the way I wish to do.
I don't believe in anything beyond the realm of us mortal folk but I do have a kind of spiritualism in my framework for dealing with the world. A very basic sort of idea that there is a "spirit", a self that can be cultivated and changed for various reasons and in various ways. There is a sort of person I like to be, so I work toward being that. The idea there is nothing after I die doesn't bother me, rather it makes the present and the various things that happen more meaningful. It's all there is. So when something happens that is particularly fortunate, I take some time to be grateful for it simply because it could have gone differently.
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Comment on I don’t want video games to challenge me in ~games
Thomas-C LinkI guess I'm the opposite of you in some respects. I like to hone in on a single, often very challenging title for a while and explore the depths of what can be done in it. It matters a lot how...I guess I'm the opposite of you in some respects. I like to hone in on a single, often very challenging title for a while and explore the depths of what can be done in it. It matters a lot how that challenge is constructed though whether I will want to stick with it. I kind of think of it like a mini sport - it's the fun of learning, of change and growth, with the reward at the end being that you can do wild, cool shit like it's nothing. There's an element of teamwork too - a big, difficult game brings folks together a bit, discussing tactics and strategy, working out methods/technique, etc. All the fun you get out of many games with a lesser demand, I get from having practiced the one or two with a higher demand, maybe is a way to put it. I don't have to think a whole lot when I fire up Monster Hunter, Elden Ring, STALKER, etc, because I've learned those games well and know what to do in them. They're like dances, each has a set of moves that flow into one another differently depending on what you're facing. When you know the moves and can keep pace, the demand disappears because your focus isn't on its particulars anymore. While I can certainly enjoy something with a lesser demand (like Pikmin, I did like Pikmin), I will always come back to these more difficult experiences because their difficulty ensures the dance will feel good to do.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkEdit: When I do a game like this I like to see what other people are doing in it. I found a channel with some ridiculous videos of what you can do in Bannerlord, and includes his mod list. I play...Edit: When I do a game like this I like to see what other people are doing in it. I found a channel with some ridiculous videos of what you can do in Bannerlord, and includes his mod list. I play with a bit of a different setup for what appears on the campaign map but the numbers will get up there toward endgame. I think I'm gonna try to get good at doing 8 divisions on the steam deck.
Bannerlord continues
In the last post I wrote, my thought was to seize a Vlandian castle for the sake of leverage, to try to bully my way up into the world of the nobility. After spending some time developing relations with the bandit clans, this plan has changed, and a whole different way of playing has become clear to me.
I found a bandit hideout up north on a large island with a long peninsula. On the island there are three major cities, and about a dozen smaller villages along with the hideout. For a while, I raided caravans at the bridges connecting the island to the rest of the world, and donated the loot/prisoners to the hideout to develop a relationship with them. Eventually, this led to an option to build a safe house, so I did that and discovered a whole bunch of new stuff.
The safe house, which I've named Scumbag's Repose, is a small farm + cave system in a ruined castle by the river. It progresses and builds up similar to other stuff in the game, so I've been working at improving it and expanding the range of what I can do. The primary way to grow the hideout is to recruit more bandits (referred to as "Your Lads") and turn prisoners into slaves. The Lads can either guard the hideout, which maintains order, or go do banditry, which earns some money to offset the costs of maintenance. With the prisoners, once enslaved they either can serve in the hideout, which helps to rank it up/build improvements, or work in the stone mine, which delivers high short term profits but results in folks dying on a regular basis. The hideout has a Scheme Room, where you select a companion to manage it and then train recruits, as spies, thieves, and assassins.
After first establishing Scumbag's Repose, I spent some money to outfit my guys with the best stuff, and took a new name. "Pruggnard the Merciless" has become "Mallgoth the Loiterer". For a while, I roamed and continued raiding caravans, but where before id just sell everything off (loot and prisoners alike), now I dump the resources into the hideout. At present, we have 400 Lads, and about 600 slaves. With the gigantic pile of gold I'd accrued from the raids, I went around the island and invested in it. I own workshops in the three major cities, producing beer, velvet, wood, and weapons. In each of the smaller villages, I bought 10-20 acres of land which produce and sell goods for me. Once I achieved profitability, I decided to gather my companions and a big squad of cavalry and embarked on an expedition to the south.
I went there by doing a crescent along the eastern side of the map, got to the south and established relations with the bandit clans of the steppe and desert. They send emissaries to the safe house, where I can donate stuff or call them forth as a fighting force. On my return trip to the safe house, I met a woman, Yana of the steppe, and married her by giving her mom a big pile of gold. Yana's standout character traits are "ferocity" and "cruelty", I think I did good. I renamed her "Yanagoth", outfitted her as elite cavalry, and got her pregnant before finally returning to Scumbag's Repose.
Because Yanagoth is of noble lineage, now I occasionally receive messengers from the Khuzait Empire, who ask me to do things like assassinate and defame their enemies for a sizeable chunk of change. As the Scheme Room gets more effective it gets easier to do these, but a major part of it relies on establishing a network with the gang leaders in major cities. I decided I needed to leave once again, and made my way west to the highlands, where the kingdom of Battania lies (near Vlandia) to try to build up this network. In the highlands I traveled from town to town, doing pit fighting under different gang leaders to get in their good graces. With the network established, I can spy on the various kingdoms, and better accomplish the schemes the Khuzait ask of me. As the network develops I open up more options, to go after nobles of all the different clans, so I've begun to try to assassinate the Vlandian clan heads who hate me the most.
At present, I've amassed 1.5 million denars (gold), raised around 200 troops to their highest tiers, and opened up the options for calling forth support from the other bandit clans. Im going to split the elite troops among my companions, turn them into individual parties, grow them further and then unite them all into a proper army (my goal is 1200 total fully upgraded troops). Once established, I am going to take my army over to Vlandia, and instead of seizing a castle I am going to attempt seizing Vlandia itself. My assassins will get their most entrenched nobles while I make my way through their lands, and when we've reached their king I will call forth the bandit hordes and finish the job.
The wonderful thing about Bannerlord is this is but a step along the way. Once a kingdom has been established I will be in competition with the others directly, they will not take kindly to my bandit uprising. Too bad, so sad, all the earth shall march beneath the banner of Mallgoth the Loiterer before I am finished.
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Comment on Insane and crazy recipe substitutions? in ~food
Thomas-C Link ParentThe neighbor did give us cookies again if I remember correctly. At the time I moved away not long after the original story, and I do seem to remember my mom offhandedly mentioning getting some...The neighbor did give us cookies again if I remember correctly. At the time I moved away not long after the original story, and I do seem to remember my mom offhandedly mentioning getting some more "chocolate chip ruffles" lol.
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Comment on Insane and crazy recipe substitutions? in ~food
Thomas-C LinkMy mom has a recipe she uses at thanksgiving for green bean bundles. She'll use a slice of bacon to make a bundle with 8-12 long green beans, then bake them in a tray with a mix of onions, cider...My mom has a recipe she uses at thanksgiving for green bean bundles. She'll use a slice of bacon to make a bundle with 8-12 long green beans, then bake them in a tray with a mix of onions, cider vinegar, and some different herbs. I have an unhealthy kind of love of vinegar so they're always a hit with me. One time, I was visiting with my grandmother and she decided she was going to make some green bean bundles, because she knew I liked them.
In the usual recipe, the mix of stuff takes on an orange-red color, and they taste best if you're using fresh green beans and thick bacon. What I got served was a deep red. The green beans were cut exactly the same, and the bacon was that thin, pre-cooked kind you find in a frozen section. I didn't want to be impolite, so I took one with a fork and bit into it. Turns out, what I expected to be an onion-y, vinegar-y sort of taste was Russian salad dressing, with canned beans and precooked bacon. Grandma had picked out whatever sauce looked right and used it on that basis, because she'd worked up enough nervousness to stop her from asking anyone how to actually make that dish.
My dad one time got to experience this same sort of moment by way of a ham and sour cream sandwich, which is like a family legend at this point. Same sort of story, grandma done got nervous and just made something that looked like what he'd asked for, because she didn't want him to know she'd run out of mayonnaise. At the time, she lived across the street from the grocery store, and it's not like either me or my dad would have had a problem with heading over for something (it wouldn't have been more than a ten minute trip lol).
Grandma's sister got me one time with chicken parmesan, where instead of the usual breadcrumbs/herbs for breading, she'd crushed up a bunch of frosted flakes and rolled the chicken around in it with some oregano. I've actually had some chicken breaded with different cereals that I rather liked, but the key was cereal that didn't have sugar in it/wasn't flavored with sweet spices. Frosted Flake Chicken Parm is definitely not on that list. The sugar made the whole thing taste kinda like off ketchup with cheese.
One time a neighbor brought us some cookies, just as a thing she'd do for folks who had recently moved in. They looked fine, smelled good, but when I bit into one something just wasn't right. There was a distinct saltiness and aftertaste closer to a french fry than a cookie, a thick and greasy sort of taste that meant I really did not want another one. We broke the cookies apart and discovered, they'd been made with Ruffles potato chips. The cookies were just plain chocolate chip otherwise, really they tasted very good if not for the potato chips. We puzzled over this for a good bit, and settled on it having been a "that's what was in the pantry" recipe. We all have some, no biggie, but we did resolve to break one open first if she brought us more.
I had never seen Chris Hunt talk about Kenshi - he is pretty much exactly how id imagined him. Doesn't do a lot of talking, dialed in on getting the thing made, ain't sayin shit about what he's up to until it's ready to go. Not surprised at all they basically told folks nothing about Kenshi 2. I hope they stick to that and just turn it loose when it's ready, because that feeling of both discovering a huge place and of slowly becoming something within it is best experienced knowing nothing about what is out there.
Death being difficult to achieve is core to that, and it's interesting to me how something so opposite to reality ends up making an experience more relatable. It is actually fairly difficult to die in Kenshi if you're not doing special rules/difficulty options. You can get completely smashed by a gang of robots and wiggle limbless back to home base - can't relate to that specifically (thankfully?) but it does do a great job of serving in place of the idea that sometimes you really get your ass handed to you, and have to regroup. That happens in other games, but in say a TES game, its far more common to die and reload, so whatever regrouping you do doesn't directly connect to the event in the same way. In souls you just fade back in and do the same stretch again. You can feel like you took revenge, but it's more of an imaginary. Kenshi allows for the full experience/history to play out, and from that comes a deeper sort of self-crafted narrative if you just roll with the punches and keep on keepin' on.
Few games accomplish the same mix, where the story of what you do is as much a function of the world turning as it is the moves you make. It took me a while before I got into playing it but pretty quickly it made me realize I am right on board with how it approaches doing a big roleplaying game. Good gameplay reigns supreme so I'll happily play a well made power fantasy, but I agree with Chris on the unrelatable aspect of that sort of storytelling. I can't really relate to being a hero and changing the world, or being charged with saving anything. As much as I enjoyed a game like Elden Ring, being the person charged with breaking the cycles of history feels like a sort of buddhist-y, maximal version of that kind of setup. It's a bit more relatable in that you get to it through much struggle, you grow and change and that is definitely how life can be, but the very end (as much fun as it is to get there) tends to be kinda simple and not really very satisfying, and imo every souls game was like that. You get told a basic idea of what happens, but you're shown very little, and your character is just over. You can repeat the cycle if you want, but you can't see what happens after you break it. Kenshi lets you keep going, pretty much no matter what happens. There is no transcendent moment, you never become anything more than another weird dipshit on the sand planet. You just do what you do, things rise and fall, and eventually you come to your own conclusion and begin again.
You can become an unstoppable cyborg warlord and conquer the world with a cannibal army but even in reaching that it is made abundantly clear, best you can do is be an Ozymandias. With time all becomes dust, so take risks, steal the robot leg and see if you can keep it when the alien guys all come out to beat your ass over it. Retreat, hack off one of yours and return, bechromed and angry over folks defending their own property like that. Be an ancient robot and roam the wastes with the skinwalkers. Raise a pack of animals and build a farm. Buy a house, make friends, be a ninja gang. Learn how to make weapons, do trade caravans and see the world. Totally up to you, and the story will only grow as you keep going. Eventually, between doing things, angering people, and finding cool stuff you'll come out with a fun story.