I enjoy playing Riverside the most.

From a survival aspect, I find it the easiest to orientate myself as I just head north to the river and I have one less direction that I do not need to worry about.

I can go to the far west and have a fairly isolated grocery store and nearby gas station that is relatively sparce population and can be kept in check.

The town planning is quite open, with the standout being acess to a book store, and makes it easier to be a bit reckless as there is usually enough open spaces to avoid getting boxed in.

It might not have the exciting places like the other locations, but it is plenty if one just wants to try “survive” outside civilisation as one can box themselves a “fishing” box near the river for uninterrupted fishing for quality food, plentiful water that you need to clean to drink, fairly quiet on the outskirts that one can secure with light patrolling.

From exploration side, there is the abadoned town with a factory building on the far west and a bit south, the golf course south of the town and if one is willing to live a bit dangerous there is the town of Ekron to the south as well which as has good loot but is quiet populated to boot

Even the helicopter event feels milder here as well as the flow of migration feels like it has less “hotspots” to pull from.

Probably best enjoyed for a more quiet, less threat lifestyle which I guess can be said for most areas outside the major towns.

That must have been one heck of a warp eruption if the Eldar were considered like, or even greater than, the Imperium of Man in empire size for their entire civilisation to collapse in on itself from their hedonism

Only way I can try comprehend it is if all the humans of the Imperium where pyskers and were linked in real space and then having that link be chaos corrupted to such a degree that it fried their brains with the emotion made manifest.

I guess there must have been enough Eldar survivors that decided to not repeat that mistake and have it engraved in their ideology in pursuit of “purity” and those that saw the chaos, decided that it was meant to be, refused to change and figured out “loopholes” to not suffer the ill effects.

I have moved towards playing apocalypse to experience playing the “intended” experience as it stops the temptation to fiddle with settings that might give me an advantage

If I set the parameters, I end up feeling like I am cheating myself of the experience as I do tend to fiddle with settings to make stuff I am not too familiar with easier ( stuff like car maintainence and fuel supply)

Mods that I add is mainly cosmetic stuff like true actions, authentic Z, fillibuster for cars and stuff that expands the variety of loot for variety sake.

I like to live a survivor in the woods style, find a house and secure it and convert it in something that can support all my needs and from which I can plan out raids on the nearby town.

Unfortunately, doing that does limit myself as I end up playing Zomboid Valley and neglect zomboid genocide.

If I would modify, I feel the mod that allows a % of zomboids being runners keeps one on their toes, adjust expanded helicopter events to sometimes to keep the feel of life around, bite transmission with some time to “perform final rites” before succumbing, a 14 days zomboid respawn timer with a small respawn %, smaller bunching sizes so they spread out, a biofuel mod, skill increase speed x3 and 2 hour days.

Hopefully with .42 and beyond, it can open the doors for time-appropriate self sustainability with mods picking up where it might be missing.

I am kind of the subborn idiot that initially struggled with the tutorial, but struggled enough to learn what it was it was trying to teach.

I remember and know it from failing, leaning and trying different things seeing what works.

The three starting default characters all have something they are good at and looking at those - all three are meant to get through the tutorial, although Norg is the most straight forward approach.

As I said before, it is not the best and they could have done a better job, yes.

It can leave one feeling annoyed that their gun character struggles - sure

Can it suck knowing you have to put some token effort into a melee skill if you do not want to sneak around or evade the enemies - indeed

But my point is that, regardless of its poorer presentation, especially when put up against Fallout 1’s tutorial, there is more than one way to do it other than pure brute force.

While I agree the tutorial is rough for something meant to teach, it can be done with different playstyles.

Although having some form of melee combat does make the experience a lot less frustrating and can save a lot on time spent trying to hit the enemies, but I think enemies have like 5 ap or so which one can avoid most of them on an agility build by outspeeding them.

A determined person could probably get through it without fighting as a challenge I guess as an agility and stealth focus.

There is a lock pick and explosive tutorial that are mandatory but aren’t too difficult and then there is a trap room which can be a problem if one is low on perception.

The final challenge can have the guy be talked down with enough speech

For ease of getting through it, strength or agility with a melee skill will make it a lot easier though.

Clearly you didn’t mutate enough :P

Although the mutant aspect is a rabbit hole and a game unto itself once one draws attention to themselves.

Just embrace pure humanity instead and get yourself one of those fancy shields implants hooked in with decent power generation and you too can punch pyramids.

Its also been awhile, but the character that I was able to finish the story fully embraced augmentation in all its glory and was almost as good as a mutant with the benefit of plug and play setup to mix things up as a reward for all the token hunting.

Pathfinder WoTR is an overall improvement, but Pathfinder Kingmaker also has its charms.

It feels like playing a DnD campaign with the developers acting as the DM.

It does require some metagaming if one wants to experience everything, it does have an ending act that drags on for too long, it can feel oppressive with the disaster timers ticking away while one is still trying to figure out a rhythm and it can end up with things spiraling into danger if one doesn’t “rush” and plan around each main act quest.

It is one of those rough games that does have a certain appeal to those that do not mind working through the frustrations for a more grounded adventure - relative to the setting.

Tyranny, from a world building experience was great, felt like it was short an act though as I got to the final act and thought - “wait, what is that it?”

Also it is refreshing to have a game where morality is fluid and open to interpretation and up to the player to rationalise their actions, where the decisions lean more towards following an ideology more than morality

For a Warhammer cRPG, Rogue Trader is something to consider as well as it captures the feel of its setting pretty well

I really like how they made use of the eyes and contrast

Kamiki, losses his “darkness” to only be engulfed by it as he could not let go of his fleeting moment of brief happiness Ai brought, which ultimately became the “weight” that dragged him with the karma of his actions coming full circle.

Also how his life revolved around keeping things in place to chase a memory. It was a selfish gesture to make himself happy

Meanwhile, Aqua has two “white”, albeit fading, lights showing how he has finally found full clarity in his actions and can actually find true peace in what he achieved, his “weight” has been lifted as he can finally feel like that pit that has made his life horrible is finally gone as he frames his life away from darkness in revenge, to finding light in living for someone else.

They are both selfish, but the difference is one took life to chase happiness and the other gave their life for someone else’s happiness.

(Still feel Aqua has a good chance at living as he was floating to the surface, but who knows how it ends)

I guess I have the roman fantasy of the metallic square scutum(?), when I did a quick read up was was made with quality layered wood and strategically placed metal trimmings and a metal boss at its center that served both in offence and defence

First thing I thought when I saw the centurion’s shield was if it was an auxilia’s shield, but it makes sense for them to have lighter equipment if they were meant to act as command officers and to inspire confidence in the ranks at crucial times

Interesting read, seems it was different according to prevailing doctrines at the time

I find the discussion around the centurions on the edges - thinking how it could afford better mobility, situational awareness and adaptability without throwing the formation too much out of step if legions were required to lock shields and when charging was required allowed the centurion enough space to lead it if necessary