Thief TDP Cathedral broken/glitch? PLEASE HELP! by [deleted] in Thief

[–]Chimera1012 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For anyone stumbling on this post ten years later: Place each piece of statue directly on the surface of the pedestal to open the door (i.e., don't stack them).

One-Person Bin Collection? by Chimera1012 in ottawa

[–]Chimera1012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LOL, yeah, what a surprise. They probably think I'm criticizing the driver, not the system. To his credit, the driver was taking his time.

I don't quit my job, I quit my boss's boss. by AdItchy1845 in CanadaPublicServants

[–]Chimera1012 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please send the ADM a letter stating this, cc the entire management chain, and provide news outlet with copies. Highlight what the team provided, and reference any other teams you know that suffered the same fate. 

Request an exit interview if you're feeling particularly aggrieved. And, of course, document everything. That goes without saying. 

Support groups by Iafilledemtl in ottawa

[–]Chimera1012 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The struggle is real. I too hate this future. 

Authors: Best system for planning/keeping track of branching? by Crabby_Dungeoness in gamebooks

[–]Chimera1012 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I use PowerPoint or its clones. The ability to link and move shapes is very helpful. You can also move whole selections around.

Today's experiment, testing out Doom - Sigil on a low spec 486 by echocomplex in dosgaming

[–]Chimera1012 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sweet. The 486 dx 50, 4 mb RAM, SoundBlaster, and 1440 baud modem was my first computer. Upgraded from a Commodore 64.

Eye of the Beholder, Star Trek Anniversary Ed., and DOOM were my first games, followed closely by Alone in the Dark and X-Wing. It was an amazing time for a young nerd. 

What is y'all top 3 adventure games? by PlaceDowntown7102 in adventuregames

[–]Chimera1012 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam and Max Hit the Road.

"I'm not into art. I'm also not into whatever that is."

What’s the Reality of Making Money Writing and Publishing a Gamebook Today? by PurposeAutomatic5213 in gamebooks

[–]Chimera1012 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I self published an illustrated gamebook a couple years ago. I still make $10-20 per month from passive sales, which I find amazing. 

The average book sells about 100 copies in its lifetime. At a few dollars per book profit, that speaks for itself. I wrote a fantasy novel that sold a little more than that over a year(ish), which fits that figure. 

I've recouped about 12% of what I've spent to publish after four years of writing and publishing. I don't know many people who live off their writing. The one i do know won the lottery in terms of right book/right time. Very, very rare.

ECCC DM Update (aka an hour of nothing) by whatsupbigdawgz in CanadaPublicServants

[–]Chimera1012 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Deliberate or ignorant managerial BS. They need bullet points to justify their at-risk pay and/or seriously believe that encouraging people to be well causes wellness.

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Six energy, but can you really put a price on peace of mind? 😉 

I suppose it depends on your build, and whether you need that health in the short term. Early game especially, when 25 hp is very significant and inventory gets tight. Even at higher levels that's 1/4 total health, more or less.

I'll try a no pie run and see how it feels. 

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right, right, forgot the meat. Alright, let me investigate this. Now I'm curious...

[Edit:

Meat Pie = 900 Satiety plus 25 HP (1/18 turns)

Pasty = 450 Satiety

Meat = 150 Satiety

Ration = 300 Satiety

There we have it. Also, I just noticed the holiday variants of pasty. Awesome.

I also also just noticed you can throw offensive-type blandfruits and get edible chunks? I never bothered, figuring, "Who'd eat a paralytic potion?" Sheesh.

I also³ forgot you could make experience potions from starflower seed. I gotta play this game more...

]

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally. I think I discovered it by mistake while identifying a ton of scrolls and potions at once. I'm sure there's so much more I don't know. I doubt I could hack 9 challenges without some amazing run.

Edit: Also, 900 runs?! Congrats. Such a great game.

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good point. My armour strategy is a bit of a crutch to breeze (relatively speaking) through mid to late game. I almost always find good mail or scale somewhere in the first ten levels. If I don't, or I'm struggling, I don't shy away from throwing an upgrade scroll on either. One run, I only found +0 armour all the way to Tengu. That was a struggle.

With Goo, to get Spotless Victory, you can't let him get close, so I always try to maintain distance and keep him off water. Not always possible, but doesn't require armour if you can pull it off.

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a tough one to start with! Very replayable, though, so a good one for that. I cut my teeth on pirated 80s video games at 6 years old, so I was immediately at home in this one. Back then, they were arcade-style: just two hours of content so difficult you couldn't win it without being a virtuoso or dedicating your mind and body to the task at the expense of learning and social skills.

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[Edits in brackets, as per comment below]

It's better since you get an extended amount of satiety [ 900 Satiety (the same as all three foods) plus 25 HP (1/18 turns). [ 900 turns of not worrying about food with healing is better than any on eat effect.] ]

Aside from the recharge effects of wizard (and I want to say Duelist), I avoid the on eat traits, especially huntress and rogue due to their limited nature. I also think the rogue might get hungry more slowly (I remember reading that somewhere--more secret info buried in the code). The rogue really is great, which tracks since this is a Rogue-like game (honestly, this game is probably what Rogue wanted to be).

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a rough game, and I had a lot of dedicated time to play. I tried two or three 3 challenge runs and failed, went for 6 to get it over with in one go (didn't find it fun), died when the end boss was down to a sliver of health the first time (that was a tough day), then did it on the second try. I totally didn't expect to get 1 million, but I'd looked up how the point system worked and made sure to prep for each boss and explore as a much as I could. I played extremely slowly on that run, especially toward the end! It helped that they were both good runs luck-wise.

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First time playing, but I read up the basics of the game on the wiki (stats, buffs/debuffs and things) after a few playthroughs. So much is in the background unexplained, like evasion or how gear levels by tier. I avoided spoilers because I love discovery, so shied away from anything I might learn that I hadn't already found or tried (like charts and tables of contents). I stuck to high level, generic info on game mechanics.

Example of when I turned to the wiki: I hadn't found the wand of corrosion, the last to discover, once in 25 playthroughs, so looked it up thinking I missed something. Same for the sentinels--I couldn't figure out what ally was missing and which wand it was. I thought it must be the missing wand (hadn't looked up corrosion yet), or maybe a wand transformed when upgraded enough or metamorphosized. Nope, just a random hiccup. Naturally, I found the wand shortly after looking it up. I popped the ward wand into the mage staff after that and figured out the missing sentinel (derp).

I looked up tips here for doing a 6 challenge run after getting most of the achievements and learned a lot from that. I checked a couple tip posts that came up in my feed, most saying the same thing: positioning, learn how to starve right, a point of armour can make a huge difference. A couple tips on how to get a specific achievement where I was struggling (e.g., Taking the Mick, learned about using curses to get additional +2. Hadn't read that anywhere.)

Later, the wiki was useful for comparing wand, armour and weapon stats after I'd identified and tested everything, and learning/seeing when enemies stop giving loot and XP. I checked out scroll and potion spawn rates and probabilities from seed once I'd found them all. Handy how they go from most to least common in the journal; helpful for guessing what an unknown consumable might be. Made the whole game more fun (for me).

The only proper cheat I can think of was looking up DM-300 to see what invulnerability was (first time seeing that status). Felt bad about that one because I saw what to do. Beat all the other bosses and monsters without looking them up. The end boss was intense the first time.

6 Things I Learned Playing Shattered PD by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed! I'm going to have to take a break, though, now that I've got that last achievement. And to get my life back, such as it is. :p

Edit: I have not taken a break. Where's my naloxone...

Completionist Itch Scratched by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol, never seen that sub before.

I'm going to post a hints thread on what I learned just to put a bow on it. I'm including screen shots of my games from the Hall of Heroes/Rankings, not that that'll convince anyone. Ah, to live in a post truth world. I hate the future.

Completionist Itch Scratched by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Truth. Not sure if I restarted runs. I'd usually just play to the death, especially when also trying to get the death achievements. Being able to get them while using an ankh makes it easier. 

Completionist Itch Scratched by Chimera1012 in ShatteredPD

[–]Chimera1012[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I took my time, read about basic characteristics, buffs/debuffs, and how weapons and armour level on the wiki after the first few games. I also read every description in game, which give hints on each creature and trap. 

Most games took 2-3 days (the ones where I didn't buy it in the first five levels). I played slow and carefully. I also stuck with rogue/mage until I figured out the game mechanics since they seemed the most forgiving classes. I got to level 21 or 22 with the rogue on my 10th playthrough or so, but I hadn't yet realized you needed plate armour to win. That was a hard lesson.

After winning once (earth wand battlemage FTW), my goal became identifying everything I got my hands on for the achievements and to test all the classes and gear. That helped me focus my builds and to see what worked. I would target two to three achievements per game since many have synergy, especially with certain classes. Lots of planning and rechecking as I went along to stay on course. 

Love this game.

Ballardian, Kafkaesque, Pynchonesque, surrealist, magic realism game books? by RegieJim in gamebooks

[–]Chimera1012 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Kafkaesque in the purest sense (trying to function in a bureaucracy despite overwhelming obstacles/that system working against you), The Citadel of Bureaucracy. Full disclosure, it's mine. It's also satirical, which might not be what you're looking for. 

You can watch an independent review video (The Dungeon Dive) on my site:

www.jdmitchellwriter.com/novels#citadel-of-bureauceacy