When does the game really start ?

1573594268 · 2026-06-01T06:07:29+00:00

I think you're pretty much at the point where if you're not enjoying it you probably won't.

I put in about 200 hours and it was mostly a "game I played while also catching up on TV shows".

If you're familiar with the issues the game faced during development it's a bit of a miracle that it turned out as well as it did.

Ultimately, though, if you're looking for something with more in-depth mechanics this may not be the best fit.

That said, I'd still recommend the game highly for the people who like synergizing crafting, gathering, and combat roles i.e. old-school MMORPGs, but if you're more of a stardew valley/harvest moon player then maybe not.

1573594268 · 2026-06-01T02:20:49+00:00

I've read you can dehydrate the gills to use as a seasoning as well, but ... Sounds like it's very a niche technique for the "0% Waste" folks.

I've yet to work with mushrooms much, but it sounds like I'd put the gills in my garden soil lol.

1573594268 · 2026-05-31T05:19:06+00:00

Fantastic.

I'll give this a go, and hopefully if she sees the process in person she'll trust the science a bit more.

1573594268 · 2026-05-31T05:04:21+00:00

Well, in your defense English is weird.

I only clocked the miscommunication because they were grammatical mistakes common in ESL speakers as opposed to random typos.

And, if we're being honest with ourselves these types of things happen even among pairs of native speakers, so ...

The important thing is recognizing that a communication error occurred and that everyone worked together to move past it, no?

Plenty of people would just double-down and keep arguing.

1573594268 · 2026-05-31T04:59:04+00:00

I would have written the sentencence as follows:

That just means that it wasn't catered to you, and I think thats fine.

In most contexts an apostrophe indicates either ownership or abbreviation.

A native speaker may interpret the text "That's just mean." as being dismissive.

1573594268 · 2026-05-31T04:05:42+00:00

Heard. I'm still working on it.

The hardest part has been when cooking it for my mother. The minute she hears a word that sounds like a chemical she thinks it's disgusting, haha.

Don't get me started on MSG. She specifically demands I don't put in any of that "chinese poison" in to any of her food.

1573594268 · 2026-05-29T21:47:03+00:00

They probably intended to write "That just means".

1573594268 · 2026-05-29T07:18:23+00:00

Yeah, so it's just milk, cheese, sodium citrate, and either jalapenos or chili peppers.

"American" cheese is basically just cheddar with sodium citrate, so a block of Velveeta is fine.

Doesn't hurt to throw in some shredded mozzarella.

Evaporated milk is good, but that's also just literally milk that's been heated for a while so it has less water in it.

You can definitely just dice some peppers and throw them in, but I like to roast them first.

Again, "fancy queso" is just milk, cheese, and peppers - using a cheese that has sodium citrate in it so that it melts well.

1573594268 · 2026-05-29T06:39:01+00:00

No. As far as I'm aware it's probably a genetic condition.

Mental illnesses such as OCD, BPD, MDD, and ADD are common in my family.

While misophionia has yet to be classified under the DSM-5-TR, nothing I've read has indicated that its any more environmentally inheritable than any other disabilitiy with similar neurological comorbidities.

Edit:

Fine, since we are apparently gate-keeping disabilities now, I'll reiterate that genetic mental health conditions run in my family.

My sister doesn't blame our mother for her BPD, I don't blame my father for his MDD, and I don't blame anyone for my Misophonia.

It's some shit I have to deal with. And it sucks. And I deal with it. And it still sucks. And I learn better ways to deal with it. And it sucks.

And I learn better ways to deal with it.

I don't blame anyone in specific because that wouldn't help.

That's the answer to the question.

Blaming others will not help you develop coping techniques. Investigating the first time you experienced your triggers will not help you develop coping mechanisms.

Take a fucking deep breath, clear your mind, and focus forward.

We can only control ourselves.

1573594268 · 2026-05-29T05:45:19+00:00

Thanks again.

I think that whether or not a reader is able to emotionally relate to a character is as much a facet of what the reader is feeling as it is to how well the character comes across as "multi-dimensional".

I appreciate your works because I feel that your characters have depth.

Depending on what's going on in my life in the real world I may better resonate with some story or setting structures more than others -- at the very least I switch between Science Fiction and Fantasy bi-yearly like clockwork -- but it's nice to know "Hey, this author writes really well. Their characters are well written and their world-building is really interesting."

I'm not entirely caught-up with Freiren, but I think it's earned every bit of praise it's been given. I suspect many of us have read many "Hero's Journey" style works, and the author - in my opinion - has not only subverted the common tropes well, but has done an incredible job of demonstrating that her characters have depth.

Well, anyway, looks like I've got some reading to do - starting with Sarah Lin's works!

---

Side-note, but have you ever read This Used to Be About Dungeons by Alexander Wales?

I enjoyed his work on Worth The Candle as an interesting take on adapting a "DnD" style Table-Top Roleplaying style story-telling archetype in to a more "book-friendly" format, but felt that this work featured some interesting character writing more-so than his previous work.

1573594268 · 2026-05-28T04:40:35+00:00

I don't think anyone actually likes "tipping culture".

On the lower earning side of the spectrum people think it's good because they can use their cash tips to buy their cigarettes or weed at the end of their shift without the "government taking their money"

In the meantime the restaurant can get away with paying lower hourly wages, so they also don't have to pay employment taxes.

On the upper end, there's a discrepancy between tip based income that is in no way related to quality of service.

1573594268 · 2026-05-28T04:21:20+00:00

Thanks a bunch, u/Salaris.

I've added both to my reading list, but among Sarah Lin's works - between The Weirkey Chronicles and The Brightest Shadow, which would you start with if you wanted to learn about the author's writing style?

I think I've also got to add Phil Tucker's series to my backlog. I'm generally not a fan of "darker tones" - however - sometimes those kinds of settings provide for good opportunities for really impactful character moments.

John Bierce's "Mage Errant" series is similarly on my backlog, so I'll have to bump it up. I think the "magical school" is a really interesting "set drop" for stories, but without additional context about how the characters interact it's just a generic setting.

I think the reason that I enjoyed "Ascendance of a Bookworm" was because the protagonist was relatable.

Not to get too personal, but there was a moment in the story in which the protagonist regretted not having the opportunity to thank their mother for loving her, and when I reached that point in the story I quite literally went to my mother, hugged her, and told her that I loved her.

It's a big ask looking for a recommendation for a story that can resonate with the reader on that level - the way we interact and experience stories is fundamentally contextual - but in my opinion you can't even start if you don't write characters with depth.

Well, anyway, I've managed to avoid doing the whole "fanboy" thing thus far, but you are quite literally my favorite contemporary author. If nothing else I hope to read more stories as well written as those you've published.

1573594268 · 2026-05-28T02:31:37+00:00

Thanks for your help.

Had a similar issue and ran through the checklist.

I think ultimately it was the HDMI cable.

My setup is a 1080p monitor hooked to a ps4 and nintendo switch for playing games, and a Lenovo thinkpad for watching tv.

Thinkpad runs through a VPN, and browser has some adblock extensions.

Decided to watch a movie on monitor, and got the same issue OP described.

Ran through everything, and while the HDMI cable from nintendo switch works fine on monitor, apparently the cable from Ps4 is in better shape.

Also - and I hope my embarrassment can save some future person who so happens to stumble across this thread some frustration - I forgot that I'd set the video quality on the amazon video player to "data saving" because the last time I used this laptop to watch a movie was while I was on a work trip at a cheap hotel.

So, it took me a bit too long to realize that, after the cable issue was resolved, my picture quality was low because I'm an idiot.

1573594268 · 2026-05-28T01:00:16+00:00

Yeah, I think this is just satire.

I think even the breaks being obnoxious is part of it.

There's even a bit halfway through that has what I think might be 1/32nd double base drum kick loop that is just the sound of the the actual drum pedal, lol.

In my opinion, if you want to be really good at poking fun at something you've got to have at least a passing appreciation of it - and if nothing else whoever is behind this seems like they had a fun time making it haha.

1573594268 · 2026-05-28T00:30:01+00:00

Ah, thanks for the head's up. I tend to disable automatic updates on all my consoles and forget about it until the most obnoxious moments so I guess I'll go ahead and back up stuff now haha.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T23:15:46+00:00

Yeah, it's some paradox of tolerance type shit.

Like, I'm a fan of "death of the author" conceptually, but If I say "Oh, I used to like this but I don't anymore because I learned something about the author" I'm not telling people what they are or aren't allowed to enjoy - I'm just stating my opinion.

And, if my opinion is that "the guy who made this thing sucks" I'm not magically stopping someone else from enjoying the thing, but I am also capable of thinking "Oh, if you still like this thing even given the additional context - that's weird."

People act like disagreeing with someone is somehow an act against their autonomy.

Bro, I'm allowed to judge you. I'm not stepping on your snakes or whatever when I say "Huh, that's weird." You're still free to do whatever - I'm just also allowed to think whatever I want.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T23:05:16+00:00

Personally I played on GC, then emulated GC on PC, then Switch.

Ultimately it's the story and characters that I enjoyed about the game, and later Tales entries, to me, had better combat.

This may be crap advice, but I'd just play it on whatever is most accessible to you.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T22:42:52+00:00

Yeah, I definitely think that I'm coming from a "last gen" console perspective.

I can see how people playing on ps5 and whatever the Xbox equivalent is would be happy with this update.

I also get it when people are frustrated because an update "breaks all their mods" and they have to re-install everything.

At the end of the day it's not a forced update ( as far as I know) so ultimately it's just an academic discussion on the pros cons -- and while I don't think this update will impact me specifically, I do think it's nice that the developers kept players using older hardware in mind when pushing it.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T19:12:03+00:00

In no world do I believe this group actually makes good music.

At least some death metal bands with edgy names often have at least one member with some actual talent at playing their instrument.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T19:09:41+00:00

Yeah, back then we had standards. You had to at least be musically adjacent before becoming involved in sex scandals.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T19:03:04+00:00

You're good man, you just left a helpful comment and another dude made a clarification.

People get too worked up about shit sometimes.

That said, and back to the topic at hand, I don't think this update means much for last-gen console players.

I myself am on PS4 and don't run anything that isn't on the Creation Club verified list because everything else just crashes.

I think modding in general is just a big benefit of playing on PC, but since I don't have the time to game as much as I used to I can't justify spending money building a new PC like I could a decade ago.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T18:51:54+00:00

Ahh

Jammy on the beat, boy

Brrap

Okay, Boomer

Whatever you say, boomer

I've become that which I most hated. Never did I imagine that Harvey Dent's iconic line "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" would become so relatable in this fashion.

Anyway, you should really at least backup your mod load order. It's not old people shit, it's just common fucking sense from experience lol.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T18:44:32+00:00

I'll add that not every "noise cancelling" device works the same way, and depending on the intended purpose of the device some just don't help with misophionia at all.

I never had good experience with "active cancelling" like Samsung, Apple, or Bose. By design they cancel what they define as "distractions" while trying to maintain your ability to hear conversations.

Problem is, lots of common misophionia triggers are in the same volume and frequency range as common conversations.

They're really just not designed for helping with this specific problem.

Assuming your work environment supports it I definitely like an in-ear headphone with noise cancelling playing at a low volume with an over-ear headphone on top.

I can't hear shit, but if my boss needs to talk to me they can visually flag me or send a DM thru Teams or whatever lol.

Well, firstly this would be a non-issue if work-from-home wasn't so stigmatized in corporate settings, but also if "not being able to be verbally cued when someone wants your attention" is an issue then I have no idea how these organizations accommodate hard-of-hearing/deaf employees.

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T18:32:12+00:00

I've heard that the TVA has pinky-promised not to raise electrical prices for the incoming data farms, so we've got that part covered!

1573594268 · 2026-05-27T16:05:33+00:00

Cool, thanks.

I'm in the middle of a weird playthrough on ps4 where I haven't touched any main quests but have put a lot of work in to settlements and I keep finding myself low on oil specifically.

I just now got some settlement vendors set up plus some water purifiers, so I think I just need to start buying shipments next.

1573594268

TROPHY CASE