tronfacex's recent activity

  1. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    I had heard the kids were strong, but I thought I would just roll with squad I had invested the most time with up to that point. Perhaps that was a mistake. Being flexible about adding new members...

    I had heard the kids were strong, but I thought I would just roll with squad I had invested the most time with up to that point. Perhaps that was a mistake. Being flexible about adding new members to the team even mid- and late-game might be a lesson I learned for future FE games from Awakening.

    I'm glad I saw through until the endgame even if I didn't actually finish out. The only other FE game I've tried was Blazing Blade and this felt much more modern and the story was interesting.

    1 vote
  2. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    Preach. The number of early battles I reset early on because Lissa and Virion were as sturdy as a wet paper bags was countless. I was pairing up too, but you have to be really mindful of the safe...

    Preach. The number of early battles I reset early on because Lissa and Virion were as sturdy as a wet paper bags was countless. I was pairing up too, but you have to be really mindful of the safe spots especially at the beginning.

    I was stoked to play Three Houses because it was so highly reviewed, but I need some time away from the series for a bit.

    1 vote
  3. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    tronfacex
    Link
    I finally rolled credits on Fire Emblem: Awakening... No that's a lie. I posted last week that I was burning out on it and was planning to skip optional content and stop grinding and main path it....

    I finally rolled credits on Fire Emblem: Awakening... No that's a lie. I posted last week that I was burning out on it and was planning to skip optional content and stop grinding and main path it. That worked fine until I got to the Endgame battle. In my playthrough I pretty much neglected to level Chrom and Lucina because I didn't need them Chrom was just support for my Robin (female) and I didn't really level any of the kids including Lucina.

    The final battle kinda requires a strong or at least sturdy Chrom and would greatly benefit from both Chrom and Lucina being highly leveled. I ran my head against the wall in that fight for 3 hours, realized I needed to grind levels for those two characters and just didn't have the stomach for it. I watched the ending on YouTube and am calling the game complete.

    It's a fun game, but after ~40 hours I am good. I will never play a FE game on Hard Classic again. I think Normal Casual would've been a better fit for me.

    8 votes
  4. Comment on Microsoft has killed widgets six times. Here's why they keep coming back. in ~tech

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    I was very into Rainmeter in 2024, so it's still a thing. I would spend days customizing and writing my own little scripts to get everything perfect. Then, I moved to Windows 11 on a fresh install...

    I was very into Rainmeter in 2024, so it's still a thing. I would spend days customizing and writing my own little scripts to get everything perfect. Then, I moved to Windows 11 on a fresh install and just couldn't bring myself to set things up again. All I really want is my taskbar at the top and Windhawk does that nicely and in a much more controlled way.

    But yea Rainmeter... What a fun rabbit hole - no regrets.

    2 votes
  5. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    I have pretty much chased effects from dash and attacks buffs, but I probably spread myself too thin by not developing a strat based off my early boons.

    I have pretty much chased effects from dash and attacks buffs, but I probably spread myself too thin by not developing a strat based off my early boons.

    1 vote
  6. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    This makes me want to double back and play Hades again. I probably but 6 hours into it, but never really felt good at it. I did level up with some of those permanent upgrades before setting it...

    This makes me want to double back and play Hades again. I probably but 6 hours into it, but never really felt good at it. I did level up with some of those permanent upgrades before setting it down. I love the art and only kinda like the gameplay.

    Was there something you learned about the combat that helped you overcome the plateau?

  7. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    tronfacex
    Link
    I've been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening the past few weeks. The only other FE game I've played was Blazing Blade on the gameboy. I am on Chapter 18 playing Hard Classic. It's fun, but I do find...

    I've been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening the past few weeks. The only other FE game I've played was Blazing Blade on the gameboy. I am on Chapter 18 playing Hard Classic. It's fun, but I do find myself burning out and wishing I played Normal Casual. Now that I have played for almost 30 hours and wrapped the first storyline I am starting to feel the slog. The same thing happened with Blazing Blade - I just dropped it after the first Act because you get a satisfying ending with one Lord and then you pick right back up with a different one.

    I finally have Cordelia as a Dark Flier with Galeforce and I've poured a lot of permanent stat buff items into her and Sumia. I basically can dominate the field with those two and Robin/Chrom. I like that I am able to recruit our time travelling children and I hear they are OP, but I don't think I have the stomach to level any of them meaningfully to get them up-to-speed. It also seems like some of these later chapters are Defeat Commander objectives and with a strong Cordelia I can usually just rush them... IDK it's a fun game, but overly long and since I am playing on Hard I worry that just rushing the boss with Cordelia is going to leave my other units underpowered for the last act of the game.

    Has anyone ever played Awakening? Should I just solo with Cordelia lol or will I be forced to grind later to get my team stats up?

    5 votes
  8. Comment on What are some of your recent "little" failures? in ~talk

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    Great advice. I already talked to them and we are making a plan, so that neither of us are left guessing what the plan is at 5:45a. Wish I could go back and be better, but the next best way to...

    Great advice. I already talked to them and we are making a plan, so that neither of us are left guessing what the plan is at 5:45a. Wish I could go back and be better, but the next best way to handle it was to talk it out.

    3 votes
  9. Comment on What are some of your recent "little" failures? in ~talk

    tronfacex
    Link
    My spouse likes to work out at 7a but our 1 year old is now waking up at 6a most days. I am usually on deck to do morning duty when she works out, but we didn't talk about it before bed. Spouse...

    My spouse likes to work out at 7a but our 1 year old is now waking up at 6a most days. I am usually on deck to do morning duty when she works out, but we didn't talk about it before bed. Spouse got up and mentioned to me (while I was half asleep) that she didn't know if she should go workout or not and asked what I thought. I didn't give a definitive answer, so she just got up and did the morning routine without going to the gym. She told me she was bummed I didn't respond yes or no when I got up around 7:30 to help them get out the door to daycare.

    It's not a big deal and she isn't mad, but I feel guilty because I know how much she likes her morning gym routine.

    4 votes
  10. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    That is legitimately the wildest arcade cabinet I've ever seen. Does something like this use Retro Arch on the backend? I am so curious about putting all those screens to good use with memorabilia...

    That is legitimately the wildest arcade cabinet I've ever seen. Does something like this use Retro Arch on the backend? I am so curious about putting all those screens to good use with memorabilia and stuff.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    tronfacex
    Link Parent
    I am actually working on setting up a tool for authoring the question pool, responses, their impact on game state and all sorts of metadata this coming week. Ideally that tool shows a...

    I am actually working on setting up a tool for authoring the question pool, responses, their impact on game state and all sorts of metadata this coming week. Ideally that tool shows a visualization of which questions pertain to which story beat, so that as I build the question pool I can get a sense of where I am too thin or too thick on content. If that's interesting to people here I will share how that starts to come together!

    2 votes
  12. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    tronfacex
    Link
    I'm working on a short (visual novel-esque) video game experience. That explores the relationship between the artificial and authentic, parenthood and how the stories we tell ourselves about...

    I'm working on a short (visual novel-esque) video game experience. That explores the relationship between the artificial and authentic, parenthood and how the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves shapes who we are.

    The story unfolds semi-nonlinearly through an exit interview between a tech company's HR department and an android after a series of malfunctions and incidents forces the company to evaluate the android's internal belief system for changes.

    Instead of branching narratives that are hardcoded I plan to build a database of questions and then move through a decision tree to select the next question based on game state, previous answers and stuff. It's early days so I am still writing the storyline and working on the schema for the database of questions and responses, so I can make a system that feels reactive and logical without having it on rails.

    It may end up on the cutting room floor eventually, but I've made a few games now and think I have it scoped in a way that I can live up to the vision I have.

    6 votes
  13. Comment on This feels dumb to ask, but how do you get your news? in ~news

    tronfacex
    Link
    My news intake was very similar to yours and the past month I have switched to RSS reader app. I'm on NewsBlur RSS app for Android. I paid for premium to have multiple feeds by topic. I am finding...

    My news intake was very similar to yours and the past month I have switched to RSS reader app.

    I'm on NewsBlur RSS app for Android. I paid for premium to have multiple feeds by topic.

    I am finding that it's hard to have the most newsworthy stuff become readily apparent with the current feeds I follow (it's quite a few major news outlets). I am generally aware of the news, but I have to do more reading to place how important stories are contextually.

    I do read more articles and I find I am sending more links out to my friend groups because I am reading more niche stuff... Overall it's less rage inducing than reading the news headlines and comments on Reddit.

    6 votes