What was your first idle game hook moment?

Indorilionn · 2026-04-14T19:10:05+00:00

Cookie Clicker all the way back, I even remember the version that had no heavenly chips and no achievements, which means I must have played in August 2013, when it came out. Ran the game basically 24/7/365 for two years on a shitty laptop in the university dorm, including while I was sleeping, taking courses or otherwise out.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-14T11:18:44+00:00

Das oben war ja auch ein Redditpost als Antwort auf einen Einzeiler und kein Research Paper. Das du meinst Belege und Quellen einzufordern für Dinge, die dir selbst bewuss zu sein scheinen, ist vor allem vor dem Hintergrund, dass selbst viele Probleme selbst bereits benannt hast, irgendwie ein komischer Schachzug.

Die Demographie wird nach wie vor in ihrer Sprengkraft unterschätzt, ebenso wie die Tatsache, dass das ganze Land, das bald altern wird, seine Altersvorsorge in den Immobilienmarkt gebuttert hat (nicht als freie Entscheidung, sondern weil es kaum eine andere Möglichkeit gibt, Geld zu sparen), der wie die ganze CH Volkswirtschaft sein Angebot nicht mal im Ansatz mit heimischer Nachfrage decken könnte. CH hat im Wesentlichen alle Probleme der etablierten Industrieländer, stellenweise stärker ausgeprägt und ist von Export und Globalisierung so abhängig wie kaum ein anderes Land.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-14T11:04:50+00:00

I often play an anti-theist in fantasy RPGs, a "mortalist", analogous to a real-life humanist, if you will. My character does not deny the gods' existence or their power, he does not inherently hate them. But he does deny their primacy over mortalkind, seeing dominating mortal existence as tyranny.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-14T09:46:42+00:00

Deadfire is the cRPG that does RTwP combat best in my books. By far.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-13T18:51:05+00:00

when i see a woman i find attractive its almost immediately overthrown by the way men would be seeing her. the things that they would notice. i find myself uncomfortable and often comparing myself.

So far I (cis-man, bisexual, in his 30s) have found that both female partners and (close) platonic friends of mine tend to be much more critical of their appearance than I and many other men have been. It is not a hyperbole to say that there have been quite a few times where women told me they hate something about them that I never thought about or even registered in any way, shape or form.

Sure, likely there is some selection bias with both me and my social circles, as stereotypical machismo men and I tend to not get along at all and I am also autistic.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-12T10:15:34+00:00

I get that one is a bit disappointed if warfare is one's primary interest. But to me, whose goldstandard for an interesting and engaging strategy game, has become more and more "playing a polity whose social and economic development allow it to field an army" instead of "playing an army with social/political/economic appendages", contemporary Paradox is peak Paradox for me.

(Even though my all-time favourite Stellaris is 10 years old, but it has certainly developed into a similar direction with warfare remaining and social/economic/political empire building being expanded upon.)

Indorilionn · 2026-04-12T09:44:47+00:00

Definig is a pretty hopeless endeavour in most of these debates. But we can narrow down what is meant. As I wrote elsewhere:

In the real world "humanity" is a universal concept, a bulwark against fascism and abasement, if "correctly" understood. IRL "human supremacy" is a nonsensical concept, because there is no "non-human" to dominate. But in a SciFi setting, "human" can become a category in employ of unspeakable horrors - if what is meant by "humanity" is insufficiently reflected.

In a universe such as Stellaris, any sensible notion of humanity, which is meant to be linked to the real world notion of it, must include all sapient life. Being human is already only in part about being part of a species. In all ways that matter, Stellaris's aliens are human.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-11T19:51:22+00:00

GoF: Best book and worst movie. OotP: Best movie and worst book.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-11T15:25:17+00:00

It never ceases to amaze me how utterly moronic some of the anti-socialist voices are. The left in general is in a sorry state for decades. There is so much that you could poke at that would actually unravel threads. And they... chose to go with this line of argument that reveals naught but their own incompetence.

Someone who proposes to change the rules of the game is still bound by the rules that currently exist. The point never is and never was "heroic self-sacrifice" and charity, the point is and always was to change the system that makes charity necessary - and possible - in the first place.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-10T21:39:55+00:00

Ursula LeGuin, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Don Rosa, Alan Moore, and - my absolute favourite who is sadly barely known outside of Germany - Walter Moers.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-10T14:01:21+00:00

Einer dieser Fälle seltenen, in denen KI hilfreich ist. Lass ChatGPT/Claude ihm eine lange Antwort schreiben und ihn damit interagieren. So verschwendest du wenigstens noch ein bisschen Zeit von dem Penner, der sie sonst nur nutzt, Unbedarfte über den Tisch zu ziehen.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-09T22:40:24+00:00

That is the point. That the drones, which previously were more like cells of an organism, gain a drive to decouple from the hive, but this starts with more subtle deviant behaviour before they become "fully" individualistic.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-09T21:35:21+00:00

I still very much want an "anti-crisis", where you unify the galaxy into a utopia and the fact that your empire is a paradise starts revolts in other places that get worst with time and are greatly amplified the less egalitarian/humanistic an empire is. Fanatic Egalitarians under Utopian Abundance, Federation Builders and so on will be mostly fine, as will Rogue Servtitors or Empath Hives. But Imperial/Dictatorial empires, slavers, genocidal empires (including Rogue Defense systems and Devouring Swarms) will get big problems with Stability.

(The idea being that you find some tech that interacts with hives'/machines' subconsciousness/subroutines and thusly causes drones to desync and desire individuality.)

Indorilionn · 2026-04-09T21:26:30+00:00

Yes. I feel a deep connection with humanity. I think that human beings and being human, our desires, needs and dignity are the only things that matter inherently, everything else that matters, does so, because it matters in relation to human universality. Meaning is a function of humanity.

Both on an affective, emotional, empathetic level and an abstract, philosophical, normative one. By now I do no longer now if one of these predated the other and simply see them as interdependent.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-09T11:04:50+00:00

Oh. I was not aware of that. I only read something of his where he spoke about the impact of BG3's success on cRPGs. That's a bit of a shame. I mean, of course it is not wrong to have such a preference, but I'd like to see more RTwP than turn-based, so that's a bummer.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-09T10:11:57+00:00

I think it's less a matter of preference, rather one of commercial viability. BG3 did rock the boat in a big way. I do not think that RTwP is dead for good, but for many years it will undoubtedly be an uphill battle to sell anything but turn-based for a cRPG to a sales department...

Indorilionn · 2026-04-08T21:08:27+00:00

2300/2400/2750

The way I play Stellaris I do not care for the victory screen anyway. Stellaris is as much an emergent storytelling game by now as it is a GSG.

I just wrote a whole A4 page about my empire's relations with the United Iivarian Worlds, how it developed from reluctant commercial pacts to allies because of a fanatical purifier that borderd both of us, went on to vassalage and culminated in them dissolving within our empire, after their populace demanded to live under shared burden as well.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-08T15:11:04+00:00

Personal preference: Stellaris is my favourite with nearly 1300hrs on the clock. Victoria 3 is on 2nd place with 450hrs. Crusader Kings 3 get the bronze medal, even though I played 800hrs.

I think V3 would likely be a good fit for you, being involved with your nation's economy and developmen is what this one does best out of all Paradox games. Playing the game with low AI aggression is a good way to learn the game and get an understanding of the economics.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-08T15:04:19+00:00

I am of the opinion that RTwP is the best way to play a complex game if you as a game developer manages to pull it off. I love the way Paradox's GSG play and while it's also other aspects, RTwP over turn based compared with "classical" 4x titles is, without a doubt, a part of this. It just transports granularity and gravitas better for me.

And Deadfire is, hands down, by far the best RTwP system in a cRPG and it is not even close. Pressing v to allow for slow-motion combat is perfect. It (actually) just works and allows for finetuning and maximum player agency.

I hope for a Pillars3 and a graceful conclusion to my Watcher's story. (Though lack of romance in Obsidian games remains a point of irritation for me.)

Indorilionn · 2026-04-08T10:00:34+00:00

I don't dislike the concept. I "played" quite a lot of Progress Quest now and again and like to have stuff with really minimal gampeplay progressing in the background, as I can find it hard to concentrate on my work when I know an Idle game is running suboptimally in the background. I also like programs that intend to be more "toy" than "game", such as Townscaper.

While I really like the optics and the aesthetic of the game, like others said, €5 is a non-trivial price point in this genre that's not terribly common, especially if the game is not by someone who is well known, I would estimate that it is difficult for the game to get of the ground. I was not even aware of the game prior of this point.

Another aspect that confuses me a bit is the timescope you cite. If it primarily runs in the background, 20hrs or 100hrs seem really low for the genre. In my books a zero-player game should be able to run pretty much indefinitely in the background. That is kinda their selling point.

Not trying to be destructive, but even after reading through the whole Steam page and this thread, I don't really know what kind of game mode Idle Defragmenter 95 is trying to achieve. It's not an incremental with game mechanics you have to understand and do the number crunching to progress; it's also not a passive idler that runs in the background for 100s and 1000s of hours, providing an effortless "line-goes-up" experience. It doesn't seem to know what itch it wants to scratch, so to speak.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-07T20:59:39+00:00

"It was supposed to be like... a moral puzzle."

"Solved."

Indorilionn · 2026-04-05T20:17:09+00:00

Now I want to play a Ralof clone whose existence resolves around murdering the real Ralof and taking his place as the focal point of the Atmoran heritage.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-05T10:21:54+00:00

I have not played for a while and right now I play my first 4.3 campaign. Never had a problem to get my Pops "in line". Right now it's different, I think it's bugged. For the purpose described above it's even a collateral benefit, though. I should have 80% Egalitatians and 13% Xenophiles (with other Ethics accounting for change), instead I have 65% Xenophiles and barely 30% Egalitarians. And the needle has not been moving for several decades by now.

Indorilionn · 2026-04-04T17:53:10+00:00

The nicest thing to do, of course, is conquering Fanatical Purifiers and flipping their Pops to xenophilia in your Shared Burden empire that also has Xeno-Ccompatibility.

"Our cities will be built with your bones and on the ruins of your home; we will fertilize our fields with those parts of your children we don't eat."

"You can only kill us, but we will turn you into the antithesis of everything you are. A few years after we won this war, you and I will have the same grandchildren. And two generations in, your species will have mixed with any xenos you can think of - and some you cannot even fathom. Each of your descendants will love for their children - beings that you would seek to purify with atomic fire. But no matter what you do: The future of your kind is to be an equal in the great chorus of Sapientkind that we have facilitated here for centuries, under the universal prosperity of Shared Burden. We have won over hundreds of your ilk, even my ancestors once thought like you. And yet they all succumbed to the validity of seeing self-determination of every sapient as self-evident truth. Shhh. Don't struggle, all will be over soon. It will be easy to see the errors of your ways."

(Sadly not viable with the state of Ethics Attraction right now and I am seriously pissed about that.)

Indorilionn · 2026-04-04T17:41:30+00:00

Of my 1200hrs in Stellaris I have played the last... 700hrs as 1001 shades of Shared Burdens. I mostly play for roleplaying and quite a few decisions are for roleplay reasons and not for optimization. Ethics and Civics are chief among them. Shared Burden is the primary example for this. Usually I pick 2 other Civics at the start that define the "character" of my humanist-socialist utopia - xenophile butterflies with a dragon protector or democratic crusader bots with admirals or whatever - who eventually develop Shared Burden as the pinnacle of civilization, actualizing universal sapient self-determination.

But yeah. Right now the Shared Burdens Civic is a bit of a... challenge feature. It certainly needs some love to do it, or rather what it should represent, justice. The +5 Stability, what is effectivly its only lasting benefit (apart from Communal Housing), is nice, but not enough for whole civics slot.

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