Thought I'd dust off the old Switch Lite and play some Fire Emblem Three Houses.

SimVille is growing! Yesterday I had about 28.000 inhabitants, now I have 49.000 and I've even started to get high property values!


Update: I now have 68.000 inhabitants, one airport, a smallboat harbor and a railway! Pic

Yesterday, for the first time in years, my PC audio systems rear channels kicked in at start-up, and remained functional the entire day! TS2021 is ever so much more enjoyable when surrounded by well-placed train sounds! Ended up driving I decent number of scenarios to completion. The game credited only one of them as a success. I suspected that was likely to happen. My downfall is, more often than not, falling behind schedule. Some scenarios are stricter about keeping to timetables than others. Some jettison them altogether. Yesterday's scenarios were strict. Timetable failures don't bother me, for the most part, so long as I execute all individual components (minus timetable) satisfactorily, as was the case in all but one of yesterday's scenarios.

Have to admit I hoped yesterday's final scenario would be flagged as complete. It went very well. I was only a couple of minutes behind by its end. Nope, failure. What's more, I was credited with only four of the nine stations my train stopped at. Such is life along the rails, I reckon.

(I intended to return to that scenario this morning and film it, failure or no failure. Alas, I proceeded to make one stupid driving error after another. Called it quits at the third station stop. Yesterday's drive, discounting timetable, was well-nigh errorless. Errorless by rookie standards, that is.)

I completely sympathize - surround sound while gaming is awesome! Happy for you, Decrepit! :thumbsup:



As for me I now have between 75.000 and 80.000 inhabitants, one nuclear plant (reducing air pollution by replacing oilburning plants) and I finally passed 100.000 Simoleons in the city's treasury!

Now folks don't get mad at me, don't ask me to turn in my PC Master Race Membership Card, but I decided to get a regular Nintendo Switch on top of the Switch Lite that I have. I probably won't be buying anymore consoles after this though as I don't need a Xbox or PS since I have my PC .

Not gonna revoke your card, but do you actually have enough games to support all those consoles?



@Decrepit - Regarding your sound system, is it USB? If so you may need to unplug and replug it in order to get a better connection so all your speakers work.

Oh yeah plenty of games to play to keep me going for awhile .

Drove an LB&SCR E-4 in TS2021 today. It was an uncomfortable drive. The loco's brakes behave somewhat differently from what I'm used to. I did okay stopping at all stations, but it wasn't always a pretty sight. I failed the scenario, for my normal reason of falling behind timetable, not poor braking skills.

'Filmed' that one scenario I wrote about in an earlier thread. Not a spotless drive, sad to say. Make a couple of dumb mistakes, that can't be covered up (though I tried to first time). Regardless, I'll likely create a YT episode from the footage. If I do, it'll be my longest episode to date, clocking in at right at an hour.

Now this is how Myst should be played!

Got back into playing Animal Crossing New Horizon on the Switch, Actually made VERY quick progress as I already have houses, shop and museum all in just a couple of days which took me longer to get in my first run.

Just finished a super exhilarating TS2021 scenario. Had to drive a Stroudly A1 Terrier on an hour-long passenger run with a VERY tight timetable. I usually fail those by an appreciable margin. What's more, this scenario is rated level-four difficultly, the next-to-highest difficulty. But I felt pumped tonight and decided to give it a go.

Miracle of miracles, I pulled it off! Almost didn't. At the very last moment, terminus station in sight, I saw a red signal before me. I slammed on the brakes. Couldn't stop in time. Ran through the signal. I did, however, manage to stop the train before reaching the rail junction that signal protected. If I hadn't, I'd have slammed into an oncoming train crossing to other tracks. Once that train cleared the junction, I fired up my Terrier and limped into the station, now little more than a stone's throw away. Thankfully, passing the red signal, while counting against me, wasn't an auto scenario failure. My one big regret is in not 'filming' it. I thought about doing so beforehand, but chickened out, sure I'd not come close to succeeding.

I might play some One Man's Lie tonight.

Here's visual documentation of struggles at becoming a minimally competent TS2021 train driver. Lots of shunting here, which I'm very rusty at. Still, I don't end up with so much egg on my face that I'm mistaken for an omelet:

(video link) TS2021, ep05 - Railway Roundabout Driver Challenge 98 - GWR 4575 class "Small Prairie" (video link)

Aside from Train Simulator, I'm doing no gaming at all. I keep telling myself I'm going to upgrade Daggerfall Unity to its latest Beta version, but never drum up the mental energy to do so. It's an age thing, I suspect.

My SimVille now has a fusion reactor, a farm AND its own harbor! Most of the city has high, very high or even astronomical landvalues. I have zero water pollution and very little air pollution most of which is concentrated in the industrial area. The rest, coming from traffic, is miniscule. I plan to reduce pollution even more by getting rid of the garbage burning powerplants but that can prove difficult as I import garbage to get money. I may end up just relocating them further away from the city proper.



Earliest pic I have
Expanding
Current state
New harbor!

Under da sea, under da sea down here is wetter and dangerous take it from me!

SimCity 3000


Today I decided to create an exclusive residential area in SimVille. I zoned an area as light residential instead of medium or dense as that will make sure I get nice villas, gardens and pools. The high land value is essential here.
I made it so a single road leads into the area and loops while also making avenues and dotting the place with playgrounds, ponds and lots of trees. All to make it as exclusive as possible! The white and pink buildings to the left I expect to soon shift into something fancier as the land value is high there too.


This neighbourhood is located in the new area I've been working on across the river, apart from the old section of the city.


The new area
The still developing neighbourhood
Close-up
Different angle


I also want to show you the old part of town again. Notice the highrises in the business district in the upper left caused by high land values. Here's also the road leading to the harbor.

Game wise, I should've stayed in bed (the sofa). Couldn't for the life of me add acceptable text narrative to a TS2021 video I'm working on. What little I managed to compose was removed later, being subpar. Giving up on that, I tried my hand at driving various TS2021 scenarios. All attempts failed, almost before they began. Couldn't drive worth beans. One stupid scenario-ending mistake after another.

Today's one positive gaming experience is connected with one of those failed scenarios. I couldn't even begin it. Coal wagons my loco was to couple with didn't exist. Exited and checked requirements at Steam Workshop. I had all needed DLC. Or so I thought. Turns out, the LNER/BR J94 DLC the scenario requires is NOT the Class J94: Memories of Maerdy DLC I own. I was about to return to Steam Workshop and unsubscribe to the scenario, then noticed that the needed LNER/BR J94 DLC is on sale, for $2.49US! No way could I pass that up.

To counter the train driving fiascos mentioned above, here's visual documentation of a more successful excursion. A passenger run that is a race-against-the-clock, with me striving mightily to arrive at each station on schedule. I drive one of my favorite steam locomotives, a Stroudley A1 Terrier.

(video) TS2021, ep06: London to Brighton route, Going for Gold scenario (video)

I'm still replaying Oblivion, but several weeks ago, I had this strange hankering for replaying Fallout: New Vegas and I don't know why. Well, I sort of do. There have been a lot of absurd New Vegas memes that have cropped up on YouTube (and Morrowind for that matter, but I'm not sure when I will return to my 2nd playthrough of that game). The game itself already has plenty of funny moments, but the memes people have been making are the kind of s---posting that I enjoy. It's hard to explain. It's simply either your sense of humor or it isn't.

Some of my New Vegas urge was prompted by the, hmm, shall we say . . . poorly received mod for New Vegas that was 7 years in the making called Fallout: The Frontier. If you don't know about that, it's the textbook definition of a s---show. I've seen some reviews on it, and the basic idea is that the technological aspects are absolutely mind-blowing for the engine, but the writing is so hilariously atrocious I have absolutely no idea how it came to be. I'm not usually one to jump all over a game's writing--I don't consider myself to be particularly knowledgeable about writing and most times I think it's just gamers wanting to believe that they are experts at it when they're not. But this time, just about all the complaints are completely valid. The story makes no sense.

But anyway, I digress. Back to my actual playthrough of New Vegas, my new character is a lovely blue-haired, bandana-and-eyeglasses-wearing lady named Annabelle. I've already been trying out some new things that I did not do in my 1st playthrough. I took Wild Wasteland as my first perk and almost all the perks I have taken so far I did not use before. I've gone heavy on the light armor and sneaking. Cass has been my main (and so far only) companion. My courier became the first female King (*Elvis voice* baby). And I found out that you can take Benny on in a completely different way, killing him way earlier than normal. The only way my ignorant past self was aware of was simply walking right up to him on the bottom floor of the Tops. I was initially going to do that again with a silenced pistol to see if I could get away with it, but I found a completely different way to deal with him.

Spoiler? Spoiler just in case:



I'm not sure I want to do anybody's side, even the independent route, this time. I just want to do most of main game content, including stuff I have not done before, and the DLCs--in the proper order this time. And I really want to kill Ulysses instead of talking him down this time. The first time I played New Vegas, I didn't know the DLCs had a canonical order and I did Lonesome Road first because it sounded the most interesting. And that one is supposed to be last. Probably explains why I could barely damage Ulysses before he Stimpaked himself and swarmed me with robots...

I am playing what I am writing, or writing what I am playing... I see what I eat and I eat what I see is not the same thing, is it? So, I am now in Skyrim and I shall soon be returning to Oblivion. But I am also in Two Worlds 2 where Hauk (Lena's friend) had spent a few years... that is, he is living those years now... I am avoiding the main quest completely this time and playing a mercenary. We'll see how far I can come with it - avoiding the main quest, that is. I do have a strange taste in games.

Just set my load order up for a new Fallout 4 character, but I'm also dabbling in C&C Renegade in the evenings. I find that that's easier to jump into for a little bit while the little guy naps.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint for PC .

Is that the one with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze?


At some point I figured out the route you took with Benny as well. It was really satisfying to do in that manner. I am pretty sure I ended up technically running the Tops in his place. (In typical Bethesda fashion, they call you the boss, but you don't make any real day to day decisions on running the place, because that would take effort, and just be a business administrator sim). But I might be misremembering.

I believe what you meant to write there was: "in typical Obsidian fashion".

Half the time in typical Bethesda fashion they don't even call you boss, arch-mage, headmaster, or whatever. You're just told to go fetch something.

Bethesda did seem to get a bit better about your status after completing a guild's questline. In Skyrim, at least you could ask someone else to take over the College of Winterhold. And Dawnguard was perfect in that you simply remained a working member of the guild instead if becoming its boss.

I was pleased to see that Zenimax listened to players and followed the later direction of BethSoft with ESO. After you complete the MG, FG, TG questlines, you simply remain a working member of the guild (not the boss) and there are daily quests forever as you like. There are a couple other professional/adventuring organizations as well that offer neverending things to do but you never have to deal with any leadership/administrative burdens to take away from being simply an adventuress.

To be honest, I don't think you should be able to become the head of any guilds. That's just too much. Daggerfall made it a real struggle to get up there, at least, but the quests are usually dull and there is no actual storyline to the guilds in that game. Second-in-command should be the highest obtainable rank, at best.

In Morrowind, Oblivion, and especially Skyrim, you could really blow through everything in a small amount of time and boom, you are somehow the head of the guild. Almost all of the NPCs in the guilds are so static, rarely having a real reaction to you climbing up the ranks when most of them should be trying to do the same. There should be more political machinations going on behind the scenes, which Morrowind had somewhat but even then they didn't truly have an impact on your ascension. ESO did better in this regard, though the Fighters and Mages Guild questlines are pathetically short.




Yeah, and that's ridiculous. No one is going to tell their boss to go do those kinds of things. Rarely would they even ask. There is little substantial, tangible benefit to becoming the leader of a guild in TES games.

Oh goddess... Obsidian... Playing several of their game in a row during lockdown really lowered my opinion of them.

But absolutely them too of course, in New Vegas obviously. I don't get the desire to make people the leaders of organizations, when you literally cannot follow through with actually portraying them as the leaders of said factions afterward.

At least the whole stronghold/castle mechanic so many RPGs likewise feel legally bound to include do involve you spending money on upgrading the castle you inherit/seize/are given. Sometimes even upgrading the gear of your retainers, deciding to send out patrols, and appoint lieutenants. So they allow you to be a castle administrator. *yawn*.

I think that's Cyberpunk 2077.

OMG you had me laughing with this! I remember this happening to me in "Banished," I finally realized that I couldn't win because it was always something, lol. Still, it was fun building the towns.








The link doesn't work for me.








Nice, that sound can really make a difference! Congrats!!!







WOO HOO, Nice !!!








Really nice! I am getting nervous now about the giant evacuation imminent though; lol.

I don't remember what all you need to pass with Swank; but I've done it before too. In the room you have the choice of ambushing him or if you have a certain perk you can have sex with him and kill him right afterward while he sleeps. Nothing to see here; it is just like the sexbot you test out = black screen.

I just want his jacket and shades; lol.








Yes, this pleased me all to heck in ESO! I hated Bethesda's earlier obsession with our characters becoming the leader/head of absolutely every organization the character helped; it was just way too too. Not to mention that the people you came to love had to die to gain your promotion. Really glad they finally started listening on that score.







Agree 100% with everything you said here;

Thanks for your input, mALX! I'm still expanding SimVille with more upperclass neighbourhoods

Overview
New neighbourhood
Closeup



One of the most expensive business skyscrapers in the making
Finished

I remember playing--- I think it was SimCity 2000--- and getting annoyed because the populace was unhappy, despite my giving them all the amenities I could think of.

Mrs. Treydog asked what had me frustrated, and I explained the concept and the problem.

Her response- which goes a long way toward explaining our 30+ years of being together was---

"So take away their police and fire departments and see how they like it then."

mirocu's Simville adventures remind me of my (original) Sim City days, during my first year of two as a PC gamer. The first city I created was unkillable. Unkillable so long as I didn't monkey with it beyond a certain point. If I did so, disaster. No biggie. It's only real fault was a smallish slum-like area.

Its nuclear power plant(s) blew up periodically. The city always recovered from those setbacks.

For some years I used to occasionally launch that city and watch it go about its business for some time before exiting the game.

None of the other several cities I created turned out nearly so well.

I've not felt well lately, so haven't done much gaming. The few TS2021 scenarios I attempted aborted ere their end. In compensation (or as punishment), here's another TS2021 video. It's been parked at YT over a week awaiting release. That sad day has arrived.

For what it's worth, it's a short drive along the route seen ep06, here reduced to travel between penultimate station and terminus. Why? I overshot a red signal during ep06. That mistake is corrected here:

(video) Train Simulator: London to Brighton route, Going for Gold scenario, NO OVERSHOOT ENDING (video)

Exactly the reason I took the disc out fifteen years ago and smashed it to pieces on the floor. I was so frustrated and couldn't figure out why!

Now I won't do that. Honest



What I always do is max out taxes (22) in December only to bring it all the way down again (2 or 3)in January. Gives a much needed boost so I can keep building without taking any loans


City has expanded much since my last post, and I'm relocating the dump and burners even further away from town. All the while everyone is happy according to the happiness map and I have many areas with very high and astronomical values. I love building those posh neighbourhoods with villas and pools!

Pics prolly on Sunday.

I finally breached 300.000 citizens!!


Happened just as I was about to save and quit, too! Today I built some regular housings (not the posh villas) and business districts. I also built a railroad to the harbor and connected it to the subway system.

You can see how the city has expanded in this before and this after pic. I'm inching my way to the coast!


And just for fun, here is the first pic of the city and the latest.

My non-gaming streak continues. However, a TS2021 video uploaded to YT weeks ago finally reached its publication date this morning. No, it's not the one with a bogus Copyright Claim. That's next Friday. This one sees me drive a passenger train from Falmouth to Truro, along a Workshop route that modifies the payware Falmouth Branch Line route. Motive power is a 54xx Pannier tank steam loco.

(video) TS2021, ep08: Falmouth Branch Enhanced - Falmouth to Truro Stopper (video)

I…..just watched……Decrepit on Train Simulator!
For twelve minutes….(Jun 4th post)
How did that happen?

Trains are just not my thing…IRL. Playing a train driver is the least likely game idea for me to entertain, and watching someone else playing a train driver….is just not happening!

But it did.

Curiosity made me click the door open….Then Decrepit pulled me in….<chuckles>

I thought the video well presented .

I was expecting a little side to side shuffling as it rolled, but there was none…but then I don’t stand on a footplate, perhaps it is a dynamic you only experience in carriages due to the bogey suspension?

I read somewhere that if you purchases all the add-ons for TS it comes to like eight Grand…is that so? Good grief!

Oh and to answer the titular question….after circa 23000 play hours, I am still playing Skyrim (but I did have a three month sabbatical with CP2077). I hope TES6 will be as engrossing…if and when…hmmm
A.

Side-to-side shuffling? The loco, I assume? Some locos I drive indeed have a 'sway' to them. I'll pay more attention next time I drive a Terrier.

The Train Simulator series can be a major money sink. I don't know exact figures but yes, if you buy everything, at SRP, you're out thousands. And that's only the stuff sold at Steam Store / Dovetail. Add in the many third-party payware creators and that total might double. Thankfully, Steam and Dovetail both have periodic sales throughout the year that offer often hefty discounts to soften the blow. (Third-party creators discount too, but not as often, long, or deep.)

It helps to confine yourself to a specific field of interest. For me its British Steam. I've no desire to buy diesel / electric locos, for instance. I do own a number of British routes set in modern times, those being frequently required by Workshop and third-party routes and scenarios. But I buy those only when heavily discounted.

That said, I've spent way more on TS2021 than I should, and have I long list of stuff I still want to acquire. However, I've reached the point where spending little to nothing a month on the franchise keeps me content.

A 2300hr Skyrim play-through? I really need to transfer my 2,000hr+ modded-Oblivion play-through to my primary PC. I've said that for four years now. However, just recently I realized I've totally lost interest in the experimental Oblivion play-through I play occasionally on my prime PC. I no longer feel bad about trashing it. That said, I worry about transferring a working play-through between computers with all mods intact and functional. It can be tricky. Those four years ago I could pull it off. I'm older now (duh!) and not as mentally alert. Will I work up the courage to attempt it? Who's to say?

<chuckles> idk if you just missed a zero off (butter fingers ) or thought I accidentally added a zero!

No seriously… My Skyrim play is a good 23 Thousand hours.

I don’t have a steam log (XB1S), but I know how many play hours I expended and by my calculation it went over twenty thousand at the end of 2018. Since then I have reined myself in a lot.
Also…no, I don’t expect gold stars or a long play medal….Just saying.

Despite purchasing six Skyrim disc covering changes of platform, kids copies and extra SE versions….It still has to be the best bang for buck of any title I’ve played.

If TES6 measures up I’ll buy a PC for it and play it until they shovel earth on my box! (Dramatic flourish!)

A.

That sounds like me. I've purchased eight copies of Morrowind over the years. I'd guess that I have about 15,000 to 20,000 hours invested in the game by now.

I consider the money I've spent on all Elder Scrolls games to be the best entertainment value I have ever received for my money. In fact, there are times I feel almost guilty about all the use I've gotten out of Skyrim and Morrowind for such a small price.

Buffy played Oblivion for just over 4000 hours. Then she moved on to Skyrim for another 4000 hours. For the last 10k+ hours, she's been calling ESO home. Sounds like Adella has us all beat in Skryim though!

I suspect my eyes saw 23k but my mind rejected it.

I tend to play games I really like to death, but can't envision a play-through so long as yours. Then again, I suspect I put numerous thousands of hours into Everquest and, to a lesser extent, Everquest 2 during my MMO addiction, which extended from about a year following Daggerfall's release until 2009, when I bought Oblivion. (My MMO addiction includes some year with Meridian59 in addition to EQ1 & 2.)

It soon adds up!

I was a Skyrim addict. At my worst I would play 8 hours per day every day. Starting like 7pm and going through to 2 or 3am. Even now, once I get into a good questline, despite knowing it inside out, I just can’t put the controller down until the small hours, but at least I have days off it

When Skyrim released, I had a regular day job and spent as long gaming in the evenings as I did working in the day. Then mother developed Alzheimers and become bed bound. I moved her in with us and gave up regular work to be her primary carer. Most of the day she just slept and so I filled much of my spare time….with more Skyrim.

Everything has changed again now, but I still Skyrim at least three days per week…say 15 hours or so, but the ferver has gone out of it and sometimes I get quest burnout where quests become just a hard slog.

Why keep going if like food chewed too long, it has lost it’s flavour? Well, I can’t see a game out there that fills the slot adequately for me. I did have three months with CP2077, but it was a great disappointment… The endings were unpalatable to me…Go check YT if curious hmmm.

However, I have ways of putting some zing back into the old boot! I have developed a set of tiered rule based challenges which toughen the game (a lot) by disallowing most advantageous vanilla game mechanics. Like….no healing, on Legendary, no reloads upon death, no followers, no magic (unless specifically being a sorceress), no aiming sight for ranged weapons (always third person for me see) no paralyse or absorb enchants etc. Each challenge gets progressively tougher to survive while completing the quest lines. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but can make a diverting change from wandering around or trying to think up new playstyles.
If there is any interest I could publish the rule sets here…they were on Beth Forums for years, but now moved elsewhere.

Anyway….I seem to be rambling again
Time to get going
Adella

Adella- for me, THAT was what made Morrowind (and the other ES games) playable (and replayable). Forcing the character to make choices- phobias, inability to use certain weapons/armor/skills, would NEVER join this or that organization for "reasons", and so forth.

My fan-fic stories grew out of that process of character development, because I had to come up with a "back-story" to explain the characters' choices.

One of the MOST challenging feats I ever attempted was... get through the Morrowind main quest while killing the fewest people possible.... Which meant running away from a LOT of random encounters and not joining most guilds.

I think the fact that we are seriously debating how draugr get back into their alcoves after you've killed them (again), shows that we are not just casual players. Me, I don't particularly like Skyrim. Don't like the quests that much, never completed either of the main quest lines (dragons or civil war), etc., etc., fill in your pet complaint here. And yet... over 10k hours of play... how did this happen? So don't ask me how many hours I've got in Oblivion - don't know and don't want to know! But at least twice as much as Skyrim...

It's an escape. It's a world we want to live in. It's a world we do live in. The rest is just an illusion.

Agree with you on everything you said here. I didn't love Skyrim; never even started the dragons or the civil war; the questlines were too short; and they lacked the autonomy I had come to expect from Bethesda. But that said; I managed to work up some whopping hours in the game just exploring the world.

Now Oblivion = it has to be over ten times the number of hours I put into Skyrim. I loved it on the X-Box 360 through 25 games and 8 RROD's; and fell in love with it all over again on the PC for at least that many more games. (not to mention just playing in the world; especially after I started modding it, lol).

I don't want to get into a divisive game-versus-game argument (I got through more than enough of that back in 2011-2012), so I will merely say that I disagree with the sentiments above. The one opinion I actually do agree with, though, is that faction quest lines are too short.

SDIT: In fairness, I will say that with the addition of some gameplay-changing mods like Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, Martigen's Monster Mod (mainly for the improved AI), Av Latta Magicka (or Less Annoying Magic Experience or Supreme Magicka), Realistic Leveling (or nGCD), Realistic Fatigue, DarN's UI and a few others, Oblivion is tolerably enjoyable for me. I'm actually beginning a new Oblivion character soon, with these mods.

Toss in Unique Landscapes, Snu's Dungeons, Better Cities, and All Natural and you're close to the game I'm playing. It's beautiful and presents a lively challenge but that's just my opinion.