Elderwood

Tuesday, 13 May 2025 17:44
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
Palia's big Elderwood update drops today/tomorrow/this evening/within a few hours.

Now, I've been looking forward to this update a lot, but so has every other player. Even if I pounce on the update and download it as soon as it's available, I don't think I'll be able to play much tonight. Or at all. So I'm putting my hopes in tomorrow, in case the first 12 or so hours are enough to take the strain off the servers.

Conversely, it's possible that I won't manage to actually log into the game before the weekend.

Edit: Oh, and if anyone wants to try out a free-to-play cozy MMO, I have a referral link.
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
I formulated this post originally for the lore channel of the official Palia Discord server. It got a pretty positive response, so I decided to post a backup copy to Dreamwidth.

I know there's been a lot of chatter about the connection between ancient humans, Flow, and the emergence of Majiri people. I haven't read all the threads (so many!), so I probably missed a bunch of important stuff, but it's made me think. Especially in the context of Subira's temple quests, the consoles, and the "protocols" that they mention.

IIRC, two protocols are mentioned: the "Cosmos" protocol (here) and the "Mirror" protocol (which apparently predated it). Mudan personally enacted the Mirror Protocol, as per his letter to his wife (here). We have reason to believe that both protocols were attempts to fight whatever mysterious "shadow(s)" brought about the downfall of Mudan's golden age.

More lore and speculation )

Alternatively, I could be full of it. That's always a distinct possibility.
lea_hazel: The Little Mermaid (Default)
Some recent game-related discussions on Discord made me remember some games that I played years ago, before I started using Steam. So I went digging through my email accounts, to see if I still had the receipts with the download links.

Alas, like the registration codes for my old The Sims 3 discs, these games were attached to my old Hotmail address. AFAIK, Hotmail's been defunct for years and is completely inaccessible. It occurred to me that I might be able to find the receipts if I paid by Paypal, but they're not great about letting you browse transactions from 10-15 years ago.

All of which is to say, Cute Knight Kingdom was a fine game in its time, and this whole thing has made me feel a bit middle-aged.

(no subject)

Tuesday, 4 March 2025 14:21
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
For various reasons, I spent (almost) the entire weekend playing Palia. Normally, I'm not an MMO person, but the cozy vibes reeled me in.
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
I don't really want to write about my feelings here, but I might write about Their Majesties' Pleasure, since I just started a third game of that.
lea_hazel: I am surrounded by tiny red hearts (Feel: Love)
Tumblr's recent flood of shipping polls made me think of this again.

Table of 7KPP ships )

Buggy Life

Thursday, 22 December 2022 21:21
lea_hazel: A frowning white theater mask (Feel: Sad Face :()
I spent about half of this week hammering away at a classically multiplying list of bugs in TC's climax chapter. Dropping my glasses and having one lens pop out of place was a headache I did not need today. I crawled into bed and ignored the world for an hour (I'd been planning on napping) and it actually worked! When I got up, I got dressed to go out to the optho before it closed, and when I fetched my spare pair (walking outside without any glasses is, uh, inadvisable) I found the case my new pair came in, which came with one of those tiny screwdrivers. Between the spares and the screwdriver, I managed to fix the glasses without going out at all.

However, I do have a literal headache now. I took a pill and had some water and it should clear up soon, but IDK. What a way to end a week that was supposed to be major progress on the very final scenes in my game.

I am also currently reading Witch Week out of the Chrestomanci series, and it's activating all sorts of dormant feelings re: being a child subject to the authority of adults. I think it might be stressing me out too much. I might have to consider DNFing it, or at least taking a break.

In happier news, I've been getting back into Fallen London and boy, did they add a lot of content while I was gone!
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
I'm playing winter, now, and it's an interesting season for the plot. The winter feast was fun. I finished the second [redacted] which led to a big plot reveal. I need to get my third [redacted], plus, I have a wedding planned. I've got all the farm's outbuildings completed. I'm guessing that pretty soon, I'll get the prompt to write the spell to change the season back to spring again.

I've unlocked all the fish but one and all the cooking recipes but one. I have almost everyone's favorability up to their max, except two of the Ravenwood folks and the two teens (who I can just ply with pizza until they like me). And yes, I'm aiming to unlock as many achievements as possible with my first game. This game is fun, but I don't think it has that kind of replayability (maybe the other kind).
lea_hazel: Don't make me look up from my book (Basic: Reading)
On Tuesday I went to Tel Aviv and spent some time at the local con, listening to some lectures and panels.

Icon 2022 )

I posted my review of The Wandering Village, and I'm working on one for Wylde Flowers.

(no subject)

Tuesday, 6 September 2022 14:47
lea_hazel: The Little Mermaid (Default)
It's also true that I will never resolve my feelings about Confines of the Crown.

Yes, I've been thinking about dating sims, lately.

TS4 update

Friday, 27 May 2022 14:39
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
The Sims 4 are releasing (or have already released) their English-language custom pronoun update. Having tried 2-3 times to play trans sims and felt the discomfort of incongruous language, I've been looking forward to it. I haven't updated my game yet (busy with other things), but when I do, I'll try to write about it.

Worth noting that they are working on updating other languages, as well. I imagine it's much more difficult than a relatively ungendered language like English.
lea_hazel: Kermit: OMG YAY *flail* (Feel: OMGYAY)
Four years ago I brought home my new desktop computer. He's a very good boy who's allowed me to play many games in theory, but realistically, mainly Skyrim and The Sims 4. I'm predictable.

Pokemon Go

Wednesday, 24 February 2021 12:53
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
Par for the course for me, I got into this game well after it had passed its heyday. However, I am still playing, even in these days of leaving the house once a week and rarely going further than 200m from home.

If anyone else is still playing, I'm always looking for buddies, and my trainer code is: 6424 6581 7437. Username theskymaw, because just skymaw was taken.
lea_hazel: I am surrounded by tiny red hearts (Feel: Love)
My week off is going pretty well, so far. Of course, the main goal is to try and give my brain a rest, and turning my brain off isn't that easy. I thought I might want to play more games and read more this week, but I have a backlog and it's a struggle not to think of these things (which I love! and genuinely want to read/play!) as to-do list items.

I'm okay, really. I got to see my family last Friday and I have a grocery order coming in. Covid numbers are still going down, although we're gradually opening up after second lockdown, so that trend is expected to reverse sometime this week. I'm really okay. It's just that I still sometimes get too grumpy too easily from very minor irritants, and I still don't know why that is.

(For the record, I'm never asking for advice unless I specifically ask for advice in explicit terms.)
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
Going through another one of my periodic Skyrim obsessions. I'm currently running three characters: an Argonian warrior who, on easy mode, is already able to defeat dragon priests; a wood elf archer who refuses to start the main quest because dragons; and most recently, an orc smith who... smiths. I'm fighting a constant urge to play and also contending myself with the fact that this phase will likely pass soon, and I'll forget all about these characters. Tuli (the archer) was a very new character the last time I loaded up the game after a long absence, to the point where I had forgotten I'd created her.
lea_hazel: Kermit: OMG YAY *flail* (Feel: OMGYAY)
The new Animal Crossing has been an absolute frenzy in this time of quarantine, layoffs and social isolation. I've never owned a console and I don't own a Switch, so I didn't consider getting it, even though it might be fun to join in on the hype, for a change. Instead I've been enjoying it (and self-soothing) by watching tons of livestreams and videos of people playing. Now, I watch a ton of these and they show up in my YT recommendations all the time, so I won't be linking all of them. They vary in length between 20 minutes and several hours.

Seri Pixel Biologist (serisims) is one of my favorite gaming YouTubers. I've been following her since I watched her Niche videos a few years back. She plays a lot of indie games and focuses mainly on the biological aspect. So a game where you can cross-polinate flowers and build an entire museum full of fossils is obviously right in her wheelhouse. Her videos are gentle, cheerful and wholesome and it's fun to see her get excited over every plant and every bug she catches. She also has an eye for detail and often points out little environmental details that I myself would totally miss (like in her Sims videos). A++, strong recommend.

Zack Scott is apparently a long-time AC fan so he plays the game like he's super familiar with it. I find his opening a little loud and obnoxious, but it's a nice chill playlist of pretty long episodes. He also doesn't race ahead too quickly with the goals, and like most of the videos I watch, he avoids cheats and plays the game in his native season.

Austin John's videos are much shorter, because they're a weird hybrid between an LP and an instructional video. He's very goals-focused and he likes to experiment with how the game AI works, and how far it can be pushed without cheats. His videos are edited but they're still fun to watch, even though I'm not playing myself. That's why I wouldn't class them as just how to's. He also pays a lot of attention to the aesthetics of his island, which is nice.

Griffin McElroy also did a long, long stream (three hours) where he visits some friends of his. One of them has a review copy that he's been playing since long before the game came out, so if you are playing AC, that could be classed as spoilers. Griffin is chill and playful and focuses more on hanging with his friends than anything else. Since it's a livestream, he also interacts with the chat some.
lea_hazel: Angry General Elodie (Genre: Games)
I've been neglecting the personal accounting I'd intended to post, and today I'm coming to you with a fannish post, instead.

I read a great post on different types of monarchs, which made me think about my sheltered princess Felicity, which in turn led me to think about the succession of the imperial family of Corval.

Read more... )

I'm fine.

Thursday, 30 January 2020 15:43
lea_hazel: A frowning white theater mask (Feel: Sad Face :()
I don't have a cold, I just need a lot of tea and lozenges, and...

In other news, I'm redoing the whole outline of "Blue Rose", which is slightly terrifying. Also reading a lot, lately. Also I think it might finally be time to renew my Big Fish Games subscription, because I think I might be out of credits.

Flu.

Monday, 6 January 2020 19:31
lea_hazel: A frowning white theater mask (Feel: Sad Face :()
I went to the doctor yesterday and got some meds. And I'm going to my regular doctor tomorrow, to hand her the documents from the other doctor, and... get some more meds?

It's apparently the flu, which is an uncomfortable balance of "it's not that bad" and "but it could get a lot worse so be vigilant" and "but also there's not a lot you can do". There's... not a lot I can do other than drinking tea and trying to breathe properly. And keeping an eye on my fever to make sure I don't develop any complications.

I'm not working but I pass the time by watching TV, writing fanfic, and reading shitty romance games on my phone.

I have no idea when I'll feel better, and thus no idea when I'll be able to get back to writing, but at least I'm not gainfully employed which means I'm not feeling the pressure to go back out into the rain, and I don't need a doctor's note to stay home until I'm well again.
lea_hazel: The Little Mermaid (Default)
7KPP got an inordinately long Yuletide offering (not my gift, someone else's) which I read in installments over Weds/Thurs. I wasn't sure I would enjoy it, because it had a lot of unexpected things going on, but the writing is excellent and it gripped me from the very start. I could feel myself getting roped in.

And then yesterday afternoon, while I was trying to do my reading (still making my way through Le Guin's Steering the Craft) I was ambushed by a plot bunny. And wrote over four thousand words for it, in a single stretch. I haven't written like that, I think, since I was twenty. Like, wow, holy shit.

And it's not even finished, TBH.

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lea_hazel: The Little Mermaid (Default)
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