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Cricket and the Covid Post

February 8, 2021

10:09 pm

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Hello everyone,

I’ve had thoughts bubbling up in the head for a bit that were threatening to emerge into a post some day. It’s going to be about Covid so conveniently, there’s a bit of cricket before so people who want to filter Covid out can quietly step away …

Picture. A dwagon model is holding up a sign saying "Ready For Cricket!". On the base of the model is "Pray for Sunshine!" The background is Lords cricket ground. The pavilion is in the background and we can see the lush green playing area. It's overcast and threatening rain ... — Gosh that one’s got a lot of flaws in it

One thought that cropped up again while watching the India vs England Test Match was the old adage : “Would you rather bowl 20 overs for 100 taking 5 wickets or bowl 20 overs for 20 taking 1 wicket.” 100 off 20 is expensive but those wickets change the game.

The answer, of course, is “did we win ?” Cricket isn’t an individual game, it’s a team game. There are occasions where that 100 for 5 off 20 would have lost the game because the other team might have only been chasing 150 and the other bowlers couldn’t get wickets or pressure.

One of the cricket memories is when we won by I think 6 runs with about 5 overs left in the game. We only had 3 regular bowlers that day, so the playing conditions meant we had to make up 10 of the 40 overs (max 10 overs each) with part time bowlers. We started my last over with the other team needing that 7 runs to win, with 3 wickets left and the batsman at the other end on 48 not out. The game was petering out into a reasonably comfortable win for them. It didn’t.

We won. I took 3 wickets in 4 balls to finish with 9.4 overs, 24 runs, 6 wickets in the game. However, we wouldn’t have won without Big Dave getting the top 3 batsmen out and the captain and spin bowler creating pressure at his end for no wickets. And there were other games where I didn’t give many runs away (10 overs 19 runs 1 wicket was my most economical) but I saw those games as failures for me because my job was to get people out.

It’s like yeah, I liked taking the wickets. But I liked winning games even more and the best way of stopping people scoring was to get them out and back in the pavilion.

Picture. The Another Monday Dwagon is walking towards the camera, holding his paws out in front as if to show steady, nerveless hands. I've drawn on gloves on his paws, cricket pads on his legs, a cricket bat and a helmet with a grille. Caption "Tail End Dwagon ... Showing not nervous about fast bowler. — Totally not scared of Jofra Archer

Looking forward to another good day of cricket from India tomorrow.

Covid ? I think I had it last year around March / April time, perhaps going into May as well. I might still have some of the effects.

However, I will never know for sure. I don’t know if it’s hypochondria either … I definitely had something up with me around that time. Going through the symptoms everyone knows about :

Cough – Definitely. I had a very serious cough around March / April. It was bad enough that I was having that vision going dark think that happens when you’re coughing for too long. My voice was off as well, with feelings that if I tried to use it too much, more coughing would happen. It was quite some time before I could attempt to sing along to the music again.

Nose being yucky – Oh yes. But it’s only been around that time. Could have been a cold.

Diarrhea – yes. And this is one area where you want to be careful when looking back at symptoms after the event.

Picture. Sitting on top of a cardboard box is a chocolate teacake (a dome of chocolate shell with marshmallow inside). There are green mint chips on top. — Yummy and not the culprit (I think)

Looking at the timeline again, I arrived back in the UK from Canada on Sunday 23 Feb. The car service was the next weekend (Saturday 29 Feb) and I stopped at the Gloucester Services farm shop on the way back. I think the bun I had there was then responsible for me running to and from the loo for the rest of the day. So, an example of memory joining dots that are unconnected.

I was then in work, with an away trip to a contractor sometime around then, until everyone started breaking up. My last day in office was Friday 20 March (I have a pic of a topping up shop run !). I think I had an extended number of meetings with my potential carrier vector person the week before. A few days later, he ended up in hospital with acute pneumonia and it was bad enough that I didn’t know whether or not he’d be coming back to fulfil his temporary contract.

What we never found out was whether that pneumonia was just very serious pneumonia or the more sinister thing. Testing wasn’t a common thing back then.

But anyway, my worst times were in that week or several after we all broke up from work. It could have been burn out, I hadn’t had a break since Xmas and there had been the Canada work trip.

Another timeline marker is actually a game I don’t own ! Mount and Blade II came out on 30 March last year and I’d been watching the Fuzzy and Co multiplayer streams. Or rather, I was attempting to, because half the time I was lying back in the chair trying not to overheat and overstress.

Again, could be a coincidence because my brand of hayfever sensitivity kicks off around that time of year as well. I can’t remember it ever being that bad though. Attempting to vacuum the house would lead to perhaps a couple of minutes of exerting and then I’d need to lie down in the chair and cool off.

So that’s symptoms including : difficulty breathing, extended coughing, overheating and since then, extreme tiredness. I think I also had the brain fog affecting me through April and May. This happened last year :

Picture. A Lego Porsche racing car in white, with a red feature at the front and a black bumper. The red 4D fuzzy dwagon is looking at it from behind and a Pocket Dwagon is leaning towards the driver door. — Shiny

It was a real effort to put that together. I’d intended to write a “Sleepy’s going racing !” April Fools post but I didn’t know if I’d be able to finish the model in time. What would previously have been easy, became a real effort to push through. I was also having difficulty framing the thoughts that go behind posts like that. Oh and with the plague situation erupting, I didn’t think it was appropriate to do an April Fools post that year.

I think that mental side is part of it as well. This time last year, Covid was just coming on the scene. We didn’t know what it was, we didn’t understand it, there was no testing for it, we didn’t know what palliative care was appropriate to help people through the worst of it. We thought it could end the world. Or at least, I did cos I can be a pessimist like that.

Is there any more to tell ? Can’t remember that much of it. It took several months for my voice to recover. I didn’t get the altered sense of taste or smell. I could deal with higher summer temperatures ok. I’m still pretty tired, although the controls I’ve built up over the years usually help me counter tiredness until it builds up too much and I burn out.

Those memories do mean I take absolutely no chances with Covid, with my best means of defense against it being a very simple : Don’t People. I do miss people a lot … but I may also have passed on what I had in March last year to others. That’s the thing with this, the asymptomatic people don’t know they have it so they don’t take the precautions that could protect others. I even developed a habit where if I was talking to someone, I’d point my mouth away from them so I wasn’t breathing on them.

I think that’s my tale done. The conclusion is :

What do you think ? Do you think I had covid last year ? Or could it have been something different. Without any testing on the person who was my potential vector of infection, I’ll never know.

Stay safe everyone, be well and …

Picture. 4D the fuzzy red dwagon is sitting on a chair, wearing a mask with sailboats on. In front of him is a second mask with various cricket related pictures on it. — Masks are good

Masks save lives.

Book exile and music hunting

by Sleepypete

February 4, 2021

10:37 pm

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music, picture

Hello everyone,

This last week seems to have gone in a bit of a blur ! Let’s see … the Daytona 24 hour IMSA motor race happened, that was a good one to have on in the background. The IMSA racing series is pretty strong because they have a nicely varied set of fields and they get their balance of performance spot on. There’s also been book, lots of Mars Horizon and as always, music on in the background.

Picture. A small green pocket dragon is driving a small red clockwork car. The dragon barely fits in the car. — Zoom

I caused some amusement at work this week by saying that my car is in some ways, on a par with the racing cars … The IMSA series has a couple of Lexus RC F’s entered and they were doing pretty well in the races that happened last year. The RC is a coupe conversion of my IS but the RC has a much bigger 5 litre V8 engine giving 472bhp. Mine has a much more modest 2.5 litre straight 4 engine plus the hybrid bits giving a combined power of 220bhp. However, the motors mean it has much more torque than that suggests.

Wot dat mean ?

Maximum theoretical speed is much lower in mine, 125mph ish compared to probably limited 160mph ish (the Lexus site isn’t cooperating in my data mining efforts). Plus when the hybrid batteries drain, it won’t be able to sustain that 125mph.

Acceleration is much closer … because that depends on torque. Plus the way the transmission works, it holds the engine at the most effective revs for what you’re wanting to do. Acceleration holds the engine at max torque, cruising holds it at just above idle developing just enough power to counteract 70mph drag.

I then caused much more hilarity by saying that the high spec race bred cars you can buy are actually more powerful than the cars in the races … This sounds weird doesn’t it ?

One of the changes that will happen between a Porsche 911 RSR coming out of the factory and being race prepped is that they’ll strip the nice bits out of the inside and reduce the weight as much as they can. Safety features will be added, as will the mandatory systems that the race organisers demand. That’s including things like race information displays, numbering systems, transponders, radios … However there is also the Balance of Performance.

That’s how the races end up being so close. The organisers will continually look at how well each car is doing and required adjustments are made in order to even everyone up. An inlet for the supercharger or pressure for the turbo will be limited to cut power slightly. Aerodynamics will be adjusted to even the cars out in the corners.

It doesn’t lead to “My car is better than your car” type stuff but it does make the racing incredibly interesting. Although the scrutineers can get it wrong sometimes like when the Aston Martins qualified unexpectedly well and the Balance of Performance adjustment meant they were maybe 10mph down on top speed compared to the others … at Le Mans with the super long Mulsanne Straight. Oops.

Picture. A happy looking dog is sitting on a sofa with a stash of tennis balls. The caption is "I'm rich!" — Yay poochie !

Oh to have the kind of cash that would see me being able to get one of the more powerful cars. Although, to be honest, I’m happy with the level of power in my current car and more power is kinda wasted on UK roads. We’re limited to 70mph on the fastest roads and slow people spoil the fun on the twisty roads. There are also insurance conditions which restrict using the cars on track days.

It is good to watch the racing though.

I was going to write about more stuff ! Listening to a Cardigans song followed by a The Staves song popped a thought into my head that I should do a music post sometime. Book first …

Book 5 of the year was Exile by R.A. Salvatore, the second in the origins of Drizzt series. These three books suffer somewhat in that being released after the Crystal Shard book which introduced him, that backstory is already known. The author does a good job of fleshing it out in the books. I’m currently at the beginnings of the third book, Sojourn. I’ll read something different before diving into the next in the series.

Picture. A dog is standing up to a table, his paws are just clinging on. He is looking pleadingly at a tennis ball. The caption : "My god... it's beautiful!" — Down boy !

I’ve actually listened to all the songs in my library again and I’m hungrily looking for more again … A couple of those albums are (with lots of youtube links) :

The Staves – Wisely and Slow has wonderful harmonies in it.

I talk about The Cardigans a lot but it’s tough to call up songs from them because a lot of them are really, really dark … Algebra is a good one and it got included at an especially apt moment in the series Haven.

And then there’s also Communication with a wonderful animated video. The internet is being a very helpful thing at the moment, keeping us in touch with each other.

Oh dear. I’m singing along again. The neighbours will be worried … This calls for … Run To The Hills !

Another one who I think I need more from is Lisa Miskovsky. I have her Falling Water album which has wonderful songs in like A Brand New Day but there are several more albums I don’t have.

Thinking of Algebra, one thing about Mars Horizon is that success, failure or better success in that game is determined by mathematical counter based puzzle games. Little Boots did a song about Mathematics …

Next album up is one by Norah Jones, she has an album out as well that I don’t have yet. This lady has done some wonderful songs over the years too. Here’s one that makes me chuckle, Man Of The Hour.

Picture. A very old dog called Scruff. He's got black fur, a bit unkempt and a while chest. He's lying down but his face is looking towards the camera. He had very big paws. — Lovely Scruff

I do miss the dogs. That’s Old Man Scruff from half a lifetime ago. A very faithful companion. Edie Brickell sang about a few dogs too … here is the joyful Woyaho! (looks like the only links are copyright theft links, not posting that)

It’s probably getting near time to wrap up and post though but there’s a couple more songs that want out … Agnes Obel surprised me with a lovely voice and haunting songs, her albums are on the list too. Here is Close Watch.

Oh ! I also managed to watch all of Star Trek Lower Decks. Rather funny, most definitely the consistently craziest that Trek has ever done. I’d give it a try.

I think that’s it for now. Couple more ? Kate Bush has always been a favourite, here is Wow.

Oh and I also acquired Katie Melua’s Ultimate Collection pretty cheap … Here’s Nine Million Bicycles.

Have a great rest of evening everyone. Stay safe, be well.

Looking back – good stuff, bad stuff

by Sleepypete

January 27, 2021

7:35 pm

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prejudice

I think I’ve been destroying the impressions of some of the stuff I used to watch or read many, many years ago …

Last century even. Although that’s not quite as bad as it sounds considering we’re only 20 odd years into this one !

Meme picture. A kitten is slumped over a thin keyboard. The captions are "Press F5 for Refresh" and "It's Broken." — Things have changed …

I’ve been looking at a few older things lately … One thing they show is how the world has changed since I grew up. I talked about the Drizzt Do’Urden books the other day and the ones I read of those back then were great (although there is a Room Elephant that I’ll get to later). Homeland and the half of Exile I’ve read so far are still great books now. The Shadowdale, Tantras and Waterdeep books by the Richard Awlinson name (multi authors, one name used, can’t remember the term) were pretty good too, although I didn’t get on so well with the Cyric books that followed because they go into madness a bit too much.

My brain seems to bounce off madness and insanity in books, it’s why it took me a while to return to Alastair Reynolds books after struggling in Chasm City.

Room Elephant ? Dungeons and Dragons is set up with a lot of built in races, borrowed from various legends and myths. Elves are thin, pointy and haughty. Dwarves are short, strong and wide and beardy. Halflings eat everything. Orcs and Goblins are green and evil. You get the picture.

Dark Elves are impossibly corrupt and maliciously evil. If you don’t see the problem with the black people in the setting being portrayed as the most evil and murderous race, then you haven’t been paying attention to what’s been happening in the world. Drizzt is the exception in the books, he’s a good guy and the books do go into that somewhat … are the Dark Elves bad because of an innate nature or does their society make them that way.

I think the owners of Dungeons and Dragons are steadily sorting out things like this in their settings. Some of the changes involve removing disadvantages that different races had. That’s a good change and it’s good that the game system can move on over time.

Meme picture. 4 horror film characters (I recognise Michael Myers and Freddy) are looking at the viewer. The caption is "Dear 1980's I miss you, please come back" — No. Please no.

Errr no.

The catalyst for this post is mostly watching some oldies again. I’ve abandoned both for different reasons.

First up … Captain Scarlet. But not the classic from 1967. No. I started watching the remake from 2005. It’s not that it was terrible. It was actually fairly ok and a nice update. But with it disappearing from A Certain Streaming TV Service soon, I didn’t see it worth investing time into binge watching all of it before it did disappear. It was watchable but not particularly inspiring. If you have limited time to watch things, spend your time on the good stuff.

(I’ve signed up again to watch the latest series of The Expanse plus I had a voucher deal thing if I’m still subscribed in a couple of months – I will cancel it after that).

Oh and I was also badly missing the old 1960s Captain Scarlet outro music. Let’s see. Attempt one : Here’s a link to the intro. Ah ha ! Here’s the outro music (linky). The new outro is watered down and not very good. It was a great series in its day. I loved the music, plus you never really knew who was going to win in an episode. Sometimes the enemy was allowed to win. That was unheard of in kiddie fiction …

Meme picture. A man is in the driver seat of a car. He is playing a computer game. The caption is "You might be 80s. But you will never be as 80s as David Hasslehoff playing Atari while driving a Pontiac Trans Am." — Self driving cars soon ?

That’s another theme tune that I loved, the iconic Knight Rider theme. (Of course I looked it up ! Linky). I must see about rewatching those some time. I enjoyed the remake / update that was on screens in (gapes at IMDB) 2008.

However … this is where I fuel up the flamethrower. The thing that destroyed a bit of the childhood was 2.5 episodes of Terrahawks yesterday. It’s another from the Gerry Anderson stable and (looks at wiki) the first puppet series he did after a decade and also the last.

From the opening scenes, it unleashes racism. I was shocked to hear Lt Hiro coming out with “Exactry”, with that establishing the meme for his character. You don’t need to do that as a writer. It’s … just no. Don’t do it.

And horrors continued from there. The members of Hawknest are assisted by Zeroids, robotic spheres with eyes and guns that bounce around and shoot things. The ground soldier Zeroids are led by Sergeant Major Zero, voiced by the dearly departed Windsor Davies. It was a little watered down but I instantly recognised his Sergeant Major character from series like It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.

Quite early on, Zero is being berated by the lead character as being nothing, less then nothing and even worse than that. That put the Bully Detector sounding off immediately.

Oh and the bad people are also portrayed as extremely ugly too with the goodies being the glamourous ones.

So you have racism, bullying and objectivisation. And there was probably much more in the rest of the series. I didn’t stick around to find out. Thing is though, stuff like that was tolerated in the last century. It was even encouraged.

It’s good to see that the world has changed somewhat and those old ways are starting to get swept aside. There’s still a way to go though.

The story doesn’t end quite there though. After having bitter disappointment with Terrahawks, I was on the lookout for something 90 minutes long ish … (was getting later). I found …

From My Neighbour Totoro. Two girls and three forest spirits (one tiny, one small, one huge who has an umbrella) are behind a plot of tilled land, urging the bare earth to erupt into growth. — Grow !

That’s from My Neighbour Totoro, made in 1988. It’s a charming tale of a man and his two daughters who move into a house in rural Japan. While playing, the girls find the forest spirits. Including the legendary sleepy Totoro. Totoro is about 12 feet tall and has dark fur above a lighter coloured belly.

(I’m enjoying the alt-text writing style, it’s making me think about how to find the right words to describe images).

Adventures commence and a charming tale of wonder unfolds. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it last night and I’ll be back for more Studio Ghibli films later. The only other one I’ve watched is Spirited Away, which was marvelous too. Need to rewatch that.

A bus in the form of a cat with 6 legs on each side is dashing across the screen from left to right. The cat has a bushy tail and headlights coming from his eyes. — CATBUS

Also has Catbus.

Stay safe everyone, be well and remember that some of the stuff in the past, needs to get buried there whereas there are other stories that are still quite wonderful today.

Back Space Book

by Sleepypete

January 25, 2021

8:11 pm

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Is that a proper title ? I’m not sure if that counts as a proper title.

But it’ll do until I find something better. I’m trying to do at least a post a week at the moment, although in these strange times, it’s a wonder what to write about these days. Need to acquire more meme themes. The quiz question posts are always fun to do and get you outside of what normally gets written about.

Thumbnail pic ?

Humour picture. A cat is biting a page of a book. The words say "A good book will feed your head. An excellent one will feed your cat, too." — Quite

I’m aiming to read more books this year too. Reading is stimulating and hopefully always fun, although some books can go into some quite harrowing situations especially if they are bringing to mind past trauma.

I finished Homeland last night, went straight into Exile in the same series. They’re part of the extensive Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore, who brought considerable life to the Forgotten Realms setting created for Dungeons and Dragons. I remember the books being excellent when they first came out and Homeland was still good. The various series are :

Dark Elf Trilogy – Homeland (1990), Exile (1990), Sojourn (1991)

Icewind Dale Trilogy – The Crystal Shard (1988), Streams of Silver (1989), The Halfling’s Gem (1990). These books were written before but are set after the Dark Elf Trilogy.

Legacy of the Drow – The Legacy (1992), Starless Night (1993), Siege of Darkness (1994), Passage to Dawn (1996).

Paths of Darkness – The Silent Blade (1998), Spine of the World (1999), Servant of the Shard (2000), Sea of Swords (2001)

And a whole bunch more. I raided the titles and dates above from a Book Series In Order page at this link. I think I got as far as Siege of Darkness and then lost track of the series after that when the clan had all disappeared off to various universities and we couldn’t share our books any more. Sleepysister was a huge fan of these books as well.

When the whole series came up for sale as a batch on Humble Bundle, I couldn’t resist and picked up the lot for I think it was around $20. Bargain ! Humble Bundle occasionally comes out with fantastic bundles like that, plus there’s a charity thing to it as well.

Joke picture. A cat is looking up at a packed bookshelf. Caption "Excuse me, Miss librarian... Where would I find the section on World Domination?" — Enquiring minds need to know

What are they about ? The Dungeons and Dragons books tend to be based around adventuring parties. Some of them have their genesis in the adventuring modules, so the characters are often set up to be a balanced party. In this case, The Crystal Shard sets up with Drizzt Do’Urden as a ranger with magical companion Guenhwyvar. Drizzt is a legendary weapon master specialising in dual wielding swords. Oh and he’s also a Dark Elf attempting to fit in on the surface. Next is Bruenor Battlehammer, dwarven fighter. Wulfgar gets adopted as a human barbarian. Regis the halfling rogue gets them into trouble. And the last main member of the cast is the archer Catti’Brie.

There are various curious additional recurring characters along with the main protagonists as well. It’s been a while since I’ve read these books, it kinda felt like it was time again :-).

Game screenshot from Prey. 3 globules have been stuck together to form a snowman like thing, with gloves and other items added to give the snowman hands and a face. It is weird and a little disturbing. — Weird

My back hasn’t been too healthy over the past week, so outside of the books, I’ve been playing the less active games. I did try Prey last week but cut that session short after about an hour because I could feel the alarm bells preparing to go off with pain to follow. I haven’t been back into Elite since last Monday as well.

The back has been steadily improving since the weekend but I still need to give it a few days I think. I believe it’s been affected by the cold snap we’re having at the moment, plus a night spent sleeping a bit twisted.

Ouch. But getting better.

Game screenshot from Prey. We see from the eyes of the character. They're holding a big gun and looking towards a corridor. Webs of golden energy are in the way. — Weird tendrils of Thing

I’ve still been addicted to Mars Horizon … I’m loving that game. I remarked to someone earlier that I haven’t been back to Per Aspera (colony building on Mars) for a while. That’s mostly due to how good Mars Horizon is. This is one of the reasons why :

Game screenshot from Mars Horizon. It's a spacepedia entry for the Divine Dragon space shuttle. — Divine Dragon is the best name

I sadly can’t add the words there into the alt-text. There are too many ! However, I did just look up the wiki article for the space shuttle there. It’s called the Shenlong, which translates to Divine Dragon. Here’s the wiki link. The last complete game I did was as China, with that being their version of the reusable space plane in game. It’s a smaller spaceplane launched on top of a Long March 5 rocket. Bit like the Japanese version.

Anyway, things like this and the variations between the various space agencies just adds to the interest this game is giving me. I’ve enjoyed its planning and mission puzzles but the information in the spacepedia just elevates to an incredible level.

And what could I do after finishing China …

Game screenshot, Mars Horizon. We're on the red, dusty Mars. A China flag is in the foreground. Behind that is the Habitat lander and the crewed rover. In the background are what I think are more habitats or supply structures. — Mars Base, China style

But start again as the last space agency … Europe !

Game screenshot, Mars Horizon. We're on the surface of the Moon. An astronaut holds a flag. The lander is behind them. Earth is in the background. — We’re on the Moon again !

Yep. There’s a bit of addiction going on.

But not tonight cos I’m listening to a couple of table top rpg streams and I’m about to dive into book again.

Be well everyone, stay safe.

Admin and Spaceships

by Sleepypete

January 18, 2021

8:35 pm

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admin, gaming, internet spaceship

A friend posted a great joke pic earlier … I just have to pass it on :

Joke cartoon picture by Cordell. A dog and a man are sitting on a sofa, looking over the back of the sofa and out of the window. The man is saying "Until now, I never understood why you got so excited when someone walked past the house." — I totally get that

Which brings me to the admin note … A couple of people were talking on Twitter about Alt-Text for images last week. I got to thinking … why aren’t I doing that ? Because it’s actually quite an easy thing to do and it massively helps out the partially sighted or blind people who use screenreader software to read out website pages.

Backing up slightly – alt-text is where you write an audio description of the picture. Waving over the picture will make the text appear. Here’s one I made earlier.

Picture - capture from last week's post. It's the cosmonaut standing by a Russian flag on the Moon with a Russian Lunar Lander in the background. Earth can be seen behind. The alt text from the post last week is visible. — That’s …. better

Techie note – I’m putting the words into the alt-text attribute and the Title attribute. I didn’t figure out how to get the alt-text attribute read out but the Title attribute does the trick. Alt-text is only on this post and the last one so far but I have a kinda plan for how I might go backwards and add it to more posts.

If you recall the lady at the cinema who does the audio description advert, that’s the kind of thing I’m aiming for. I’d be curious to see if my word pictures let people properly visualise the actual picture. I don’t think adding the description is any chore at all, I’m actually finding that I’m enjoying doing it.

There’s lots of other admin things still to do. I need to go back through the ancient posts deleting the posts that aren’t actually posts. The proper WordPress import utility didn’t work, I had to go for an alternate one which was a bit too keen. I don’t think I wrote 500 posts in 2008 … I definitely didn’t write anything in 2007, the old blog was on a break at that point. I also need to write the links list (need another addon for that) and I think a glossary is required as well. That’s with alt-text in mind as well.

Screengrab from Steam showing two Mars Horizon Achievements. "Space is Very Hard" 0.2% of players have got this, it means you beat the game on very hard. The other is "Space is Hard", 0.5% of players have beat the game on Hard. — Mars Horizon …

Yep. That happened over the last week in Mars Horizon. I won’t be doing that again any time soon ! It needed a good few attempts and some crazy eyed tunnel vision playing to make it happen, with a few evolutions of path to the finish along the way. There’s an excellent guide in Steam that will give you pointers for how to get that achievement.

Game screenshot : A boxy looking robot buggy with 6 wheels, driving across the red, dusty Martian surface. — Boxy Buggy

I think that one was actually Russian … I’ve massively enjoyed Mars Horizon. It came out late last year (released November 2020) but it’s easily my best game of last year. It’s got very easy gameplay mechanics, where you pick the research, choose the missions from what’s available and make sure you have the rockets available to allow you to carry out the missions.

They’ve delivered a lovely game there. And it’s not just that … it has a Spacepedia included which is a thing of total joy for a space nerd like me. There are entries for our solar system and every actual space probe and rocket made, plus older concepts that didn’t happen and future concepts that are still on the drawing board.

The Spacepedia is worth getting the game for just to unlock the entries for that. I’d actually kinda like to reset it so that I can enjoy reading the articles as they steadily unlock (I rushed through the game first time and didn’t discover the Spacepedia until later) but the game is proving smarter than my efforts there so far … I try and delete the unlock file and it just recreates it. More Thinking Cap needed.

Game screenshot. A very large rocket on the launching pad. It has a large central core and 6 boosters at its base. — Much whoosh potential

I think that was a future Russian rocket concept again, a super heavy lift rocket that was going to take my astronauts to Mars.

Yep. Game is a joy, if you’re interested in space then I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

I’ve been back in the other internet spaceship game today … I’ve been away for a bit due to a poorly back.

Game screenshot. My Anaconda flying away from the camera showing the two big engines. It's flying towards a carrier ship and in the backdrop there is an Earth Like planet. — Hello carrier

The poorly back started last Monday, hasn’t really let up yet. I think I need to avoid Elite again for another week because it stiffened up more towards the end of today’s session. I believe it was caused by sleeping with a twisted back … with the cold getting into it. Oops.

Oh, I’m trying something out with the spaceship pictures. There’s a setting called “Supersampling”, which ups the resolution at which the pictures are drawn. I’m seeing the game at the resolution of 2560 x 1440 that my monitor supports. Supersampling means the game is drawing more pixels and then reduces it down. It should reduce the jaggedness I’ve been noticing. A setting of 1.25 was working ok on my hardware (3200 x 1800) but 1.5 was probably past what my current graphics card could handle. It’s only a 3GB card, I’m on the hunt for a new one but graphics cards are rarer than common sense in the mob at the moment.

Game screenshot. My Anaconda is landed on a dark grey moon, the starboard forward quarter faces the camera. The little moon buggy is in front with its red lighting. — Also buggy

One thing about the bad back though … if I’m needing to avoid playing the games due to the posture that gets me in, that can only mean … reading more books !

I’m on book 4 of this year.

Book 1 was the finish of Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds. This felt like a harder slog than it probably should have been. I was kinda expecting an epic finish, picking up from the fantastic vignettes of the second book (Redemption Ark). That second book had a desperate interstellar starship chase and the inexorable march of the Inhibitors as they were setting up in how to sterilize a star system. I was expecting more of the same and bigger. The story went a different way. It’s the story of a starship and his crew …

I’ll be looking forward to reading Shadow Captain and Bone Silence at some point but I have other books to read before going back to Alastair Reynolds again.

Book 2 was Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells, the third in the Murderbot diaries. These are very fast and short books but I’ve enjoyed than immensely more than some epicly long books. I didn’t finish Rama II or Existence, I’ll go back to Murderbot after finishing them all. I’ve acquired the fourth novella already … One for later.

Oh ! Murderbot is a SecUnit that’s managed to become self aware. A SecUnit provides security for people. It’s mostly artificial construct but there’s an organic brain in there too. Anyway, all Murderbot wants to do is hide away from people and watch soap opera serials but … life doesn’t work out like that. To adventure ! Whether Murderbot likes it or not :-D.

Book 3 was Light of Impossible Stars, by Gareth L. Powell. This is the last book in a trilogy that stars with Embers of War, continues with Fleet of Knives and ends here. I’d thoroughly recommend trying at least the first book. I like the universe that the author sets up and his technique of swapping between first person perspectives for each character works very nicely.

Book 4 is me going back to some oldies … I picked up the R.A.Salvatore dungeons and dragons books via Humble Bundle a while back and started Homeland, the first of the Drow trilogy, last night.

And I think it’s time to hit Publish (and do the other related buttons) and get back to book, plus Easter Egg Number 1 of the year, plus D&D stream at 9pm.

Drawing by me - A green dragon sitting on the floor holding a book. The dragon has glasses and is smiling as his attention is grabbed by the book. — To the book !

Have a great evening and week everyone. Stay safe, be well.

Reality’s being weird, time for an alternate ?

by Sleepypete

January 11, 2021

9:50 pm

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games, internet spaceship, rocket science, rockets

Hi everyone,

This reality’s being pretty weird isn’t it. Especially in the last year. But I really don’t want to talk about the real world stuff. You’re probably being bombarded with far too much information about that from all sides and most of it is scary. Or feeling like it’s from a really bad Hollywood movie.

Talking of bad movies … The Midnight Sky was a painful one to sit through earlier. It’s not that it’s bad (ok, it has a LOT of bad sci-fi in it), it’s just … boring and depressing. Go watch something else :-D. mind you, i was watching it because I was avoiding playing the more active games after work today due to a bad back. (Bad sleep last night due to pizza consequences)

Alternate reality ?

Game screenshot. A Cosmonaut on the Moon with a USSR flag and a Russian lander module. Earth is in the background. — That’s … different

I’ve been doing another Mars Horizon campaign. I did my first with the Japanese, then did a version of NASA. This time around it’s the Russians. It’s good to see different types of spaceship represented in the game. There’s an excellent Spacepedia in there as well, with many entries about historic, present and potential future spacecraft. After skipping through on my first games, I’ll have to give it a more thorough read.

Game screenshot. In orbit over the Moon is a Russian Soyuz and Lander spacecraft. Earth is in the background. — Don’t forget the flag !

That’s going backwards in the mission a bit, showing what they think the Russian version of Apollo would have looked like. Essentially, a Soyuz with a lander on the top.

The launch vehicle is pretty special too :

Game screenshot. Russian N1 / L3 rocket on the ground on a launch pad surrounded by thinner towers. — Long and pointy

That’s the N1 booster coupled with the L3 upper stage. 4 attempts were made historically to fly this combination, none succeeded. (My alternate reality people did better). The wiki page that I’ve linked there shows a vastly complicated system that we only knew about in the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union, such was the secrecy of the project.

Another Soviet programme in the game is the Buran space shuttle.

Game screenshot. Russian space shuttle on the launch pad connected to the Energia rocket. Ice is falling off as the engines just fired. — Buran and Energia

Whereas the NASA Space Shuttle was mostly recoverable (was the fuel tank recoverable ?), Buran sacrificed the Energia booster. Mind you, Energia was also a potential very heavy lift rocket that could have lifted other payloads into orbit. Buran flew once, as an unmanned test vehicle. Here’s a wiki link for Buran. It looked a lot like the Space Shuttle, which owes a lot to the requirements in the design. Both needed to fly a certain size of payload and then the wings follow the requirements of needing to re-enter. A major difference with Buran is that the shuttle itself had no engines, it depended entirely on the Energia Booster to lift it into orbit.

Sadly though, Buran only flew the once in 1988 and the prototype was shown at the Paris Air Show (on the back of an An-225) in 1989 before it disappeared into a hangar for the next 13 years. The hangar collapsed in 2002 and that was the end of Buran.

It and the Shuttle were a victim of misguided design, although the Shuttle was flown far longer than it probably should have been. Both spacecraft have superfluous wings, aimed for a cross range requirement which was never used. (They’re capable of going up, going round Earth once and the wings allow them to them land at the same place even though the Earth has rotated beneath them – for sneaky missions). Soyuz has proved to be a fair more useful spacecraft.

I’ve been enjoying an alternate history game with Mars Horizon this time. I’d thoroughly recommend picking it up for its mix of history, competitiveness (the other agencies will keep you on your toes) and I’ve found it a really satisfying game to play. It’s less demanding of my currently limited hand and arm capability. And I’m looking forward to the next game, which will be with the Chinese and possibly an attempt at beating the game on Very Hard.

Game screenshot. Elite Dangerous. The Anaconda space ship is on the left, pointing away from the camera towards a blue and purple nebula shaped like a rotated C. — To the clouds !

And in another alternate history … Elite’s future is pretty grim dark but at least it has easy access to space. I had a little session over the weekend, making my way further around the galaxy. I’m at the top part now …

Website screenshot. A map of the galaxy with a very long green indication showing where I have been. — Follow the green line

I’ve got a bit further since then. The next few waypoints will take me to the top of that map again to Salome’s Reach, 65,647 light years away from Earth. There are a few things to see along the way though …

Game screenshot. The spaceship is coming towards the camera. A large sun is partially visible at the bottom of the image. 2 suns,, 1 large and 1 smaller are behind the spaceship. — Toasty

Sometimes the game likes to surprise you. You go from system to system through hyperspace, dropping out at the most significant stellar object. In this case, the system entry star was the one at the bottom of the picture.

It’s not quite that simple though … As you drop out of hyperspace, you go through any stars that might be behind it. That definitely leads to a wake up call.

Game screenshot. Spaceship facing a black hole. The normally thin galactic ribbon has been spread across the screen due to lensing distortion effects. — Approaching the Gates of Apzu

There’s another black hole there, with the extreme lensing effects.

Game screenshot. We can see the top of the spaceship with a glow for radiators. The background is dominated by lensing effects of a black hole distorting the galactic ribbon. — Knocking on the Gates of Apzu

Of course I took a closer look.

Game screenshot. The black hole is distorting the vision around it again. A dark spaceship is coming towards the camera. — Retreating from the Gates of Apzu

Before enjoying how the lensing effects retract back to normality as you fly away.

Game screenshot. The spaceship is landed on a flat plain with small rocks. The buggy is in front. A planet with a ring is visible centre left. There is a small star top middle right. There is a moon top centre that is just showing a small reflection from the star. — Looking at giants

And then it didn’t take much longer for me to find a suitable spot to end the session at.

Oh ! Been reading books too. Absolution Gap was a bit of a struggle but Murderbot 3 flew by, as is Light of Impossible Stars.

More about the books in a later post. Gonna try and read lots of books again this year :-).

New year, new lockdown

by Sleepypete

January 5, 2021

9:20 pm

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books, internet spaceship, music, skyrim, stayathome

Hello everyone,

I know if I was to start writing about what’s happening in the UK at the moment, it would start an avalanche of ranting. So I’m going to try and avoid that :-). Yep, lockdown again … although personally, I’m not seeing much change there.

However, there are a few things that are getting more urgent that are on hold for now until it’s a bit safer to be around people. I was back on duty with work today, we have the facilities to allow us to work remotely. It did feel a bit weird though. (Could have been the lack of sleep from Brain not wanting to shut down for Land of Nod !)

Thumbnail pic ?

There we go. I haven’t been travelling too far in real life but I have done that travel to far away imaginary planets in the internet spaceship. Some are places that are recommended by the sightseeing sites (https://elite.kamd.me.uk/), some are places that I’ve run across in the travels. I have a few rules (pointers ?) there for places that should be worth a closer look. It’s good to get there in sunlight too …

Light makes the screenies more usable.

It hasn’t all been internet spaceships though, I’m having to somewhat ration the time in the more active games. The shoulder was getting more prone to pain spikes last week. Wrist actually isn’t so bad but I have to watch for unwarranted moves in the wrong angles or I get the ouchies.

I haven’t gone too much further into Per Aspera, although I’m very intrigued by that one and I have a very promising start now with an established growing colony. I had that little look into Prey and will go back when shoulder issues and time allow. I started a new Mars Horizon run as well, this time as Russia with different rockets and a higher difficulty. Mars Horizon is a game that I can see myself getting all the achievements on at some point and then I’ll keep coming back to it for some chilling out times.

I’ve also been back moseying around Skyrim …

Another case for a little bit of light going a long way.

That’s the mine side of Markarth, a towncity built into the side of one of the mountains.

And after a little raiding of the local dwemer tomb. Need to complete that armour set for Lydia there. I’m going for the heavy armoured tank with big sword approach again this time. Stealth archer is another powerful build but I get in trouble with that one as the enemies close, so it’s more a case of letting them close and then chopping them up.

It’s not just games though. I managed to finish Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds. It might be a while now before I go back to his books, although I do have Shadow Captain and Bone Silence of the Revenger series lined up. It’s not that Absolution Gap was a poor book, it was pretty well written. It’s just that over 660 pages it didn’t really go anywhere that was of interest. Kind of outstayed its welcome.

You can’t say that about the Martha Wells Murderbot series. They’re expensive … but they get in, tell their story and get out again before you can blink. Cos you’ve probably opened one of the novellas and read it in one sitting. Expensive … but more value in these ones than a lot of longer books.

Not sure what the next one will be, I think later on I’ll start Light of Impossible Stars by Gareth L. Powell to finish off that series.

One thing about Elite, the solar system generations can tend towards moons that are a bit close to each other …

That was my landing spot to finish one of the sessions … perhaps a bit of sulphur in those geysers ?

Here we had a pair of undiscovered water worlds that were orbiting each other close (the tides must have been impressive) and the Steam Horse Nebula in the background.

And that’s where I am at the moment, perched on the edge of a crater by a canyon system with the parent gas giant over there in the background.

It’s a curious counterpoint. In real life, we’re in our lockdown and we’re not supposed to be going anywhere (people are … mutter mutter mutter) and I’m pretty much just heading out for emergency stuff and restocking the food cupboards.

In the internet spaceship game, I’m off on a trip around the galaxy. But even there, it’s a kind of lockdown of its own. Normally in the game, I’d be either mining and going to the best selling station or I’d be on a trading route going from station to station. At the moment, it’s just me and the crew of the ship bouncing from star to star and the only interaction with people offboard is when I visit the fleet carriers dotted around the galaxy. Staying at home, with home doing a circuit of the galaxy.

That one had a nice perch, in the sun too.

Oh ! New music arrived as well with discount opportunities on a certain website I need to find a viable alternative to. Albums from the following have arrived and been enjoyed :

Katie Melua – Album Number 8 and her Ultimate Collection

Ellie Goulding – Brightest Blue

Lisa Hannigan with the hypnotic At Swim

Mike Oldfield with Tubular Bells II

And I thought I had the Per Aspera soundtrack, apparently not ! (I think I was going to evaluate it in game before buying).

Time to disappear into a book now for me. Be well, stay safe.

Impending New Year

by Sleepypete

December 30, 2020

10:15 pm

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games, music, stayathome

Hello everyone,

The offline time went to plan, was a good little bubbly meeting up north with the mum over Christmas. We were both in Tier 3 areas at that point so it was a case of a support bubble meet up, which is still ok at the moment. Well, for a couple of hours time and then we’re into Tier 4 due to this new more infectious variant of Bug.

Thumbnail time !

I think that’s enough about what’s happening in the world for now, although I will mention that I’m good for food again for a little while. My plan all along with this Thing has been to wait it out, reducing my chances of getting it by not being around people much. That might be leading to agoraphobic tendencies though, so I’ll need to sort that when the time comes.

It was curious coming back on Saturday. Storm Bella was predicted and I could see the signs of it on my trip back. There were warnings from quite far away saying that the older Severn Bridge (it’s the M48) was closed and the I think the newer bridge was closed overnight. I follow the traffic advice people on Twitter and they give a decent amount of info for when there were issues on the roads.

Like … the road I would normally come back on but avoided on Saturday ! I have a good option to come off the motorway early and take a more chilled out route back. The car was starting to feel a bit lively in building wind, so I took that more chilled out route instead of a section that’s very exposed to the wind. And … apparently a lorry was blown over overnight. That’s the real worry. Cars will be fine but you definitely feel the effects when you’re going past lorries and going into and out of their wind shadow.

The farm shop service station was almost deserted too, so I’m on the sherbets again :-D.

Been on the travels in the internet spaceship as well, steadily making my way around the outside of the galaxy. There’s still lots of distance to go. At my next main waypoint, I’ll be almost 66,000 light years through a 280,000 light year trip. With lots of pretty sights along the way …

And new habitable worlds which have the “Discovered by …” with my name on them now.

Still on leave at the moment, hence the internet spaceships … I’ve also been checking out Prey :

This one is a super atmospheric game, another one that leads you into what’s going on in stages. You wake in your apartment, take a helicopter to the Transtar offices for behavioural testing … and then bad things start happening. Turns out there’s a bit more going on than was apparent. I’m only 2 hours in at the moment. Looks great, the lighting there is amazing and the decor definitely goes for art deco gaudy.

There’s also the arrival of Per Aspera :

If you look closely enough there is a Beagle

This one puts you in the position of an AI, tasked to set up an initial colony on Mars and then to make the planet habitable. It’s a curious game. It has massive scope and takes on a number of the terraforming ideas from the slow and prudent approaches (greenhouse gases, melting of poles etc) to the quick rash approaches of bombarding the planet with asteroids and using nukes to speed up the process.

Yep. That’s a mine. A couple of early attempts were reset due to not knowing what was going on, or a lack of critical resources. This is one of those that takes a lot of time for things to happen, which can be good for those poorly arms of mine.

I’m not sure if it’ll be one that holds my attention for that long but it’s been good so far. (I may be heading back into Mars Horizon, that game is highly addictive !)

I managed to finish off reading Absolution Gap too … The middle book was great ! This end book was a bit meh. It felt like 500 pages of set up and no clear idea of where they were going with it, on the end book of a trilogy. The next Alastair Reynolds I’ll read will be Shadow Captain (cheers CK !), which I’m hoping will be an excellent follow up to Revenger. Not yet though, the next book is Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells, the third book of the Murderbot Diaries and I highly enjoyed the first chapter.

On buying stuff … Steam sales are on at the moment and I may have had a few acquisitions … I enjoyed watching videos of XCom Chimera Squad earlier in the year, it’s a nice evolution of the usual XCom tactical action thing. I’ve also acquired the lovely pre WW2 Over The Alps. It’s a fun spy narrative adventure game. I heavily enjoyed watching the Fuzzy streams of this earlier in the year.

And I really must add a list of links in.

I also picked up Core Defense and the Hexcells series. More games may appear … I’ve also been indulging in other sales and I’ve enjoyed listening to Lisa Hannigan’s At Swim and Katie Melua’s Album No 8. More took more time to arrive, including more from Katie Melua, one from Mike Oldfield and the latest Ellie Goulding.

I must do a music post at some point.

I better leg it now though … I’m seeing more reports appearing of people I either know personally or know through forums/discord saying that they’ve tested positive. I was pretty careful with my bubble trip with self isolating, outside of the AA man thing and picking up a few things afterwards. But this new variant is pretty scary with how the numbers are exploding.

Hope everyone comes out ok.

Be well, stay safe everyone.

Day 24 Deus Ex Vader Jumper

by Sleepypete

December 24, 2020

1:41 pm

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deus ex, games

Hello everyone,

Day 24 and the end of this series ! It’s been a fun series to do, looking back at some old games and gaming history. And the models have been pretty good this year too.

What’s behind the door today ?

There we go, Darth and his favourite jumper. It’s been a good advent calendar this time around, some old classics, some more unusual like the Lucrehulk battleship and the A Wing, a new favourite with the Razor Crest (not watched Mandalorian) and a few really cunning ones like the Tauntaun and the shield generator.

What’s the game there in the background ? I actually bought that one in 2012 not long after my previous machine, Pumpkin, was built. Best Buy were still operating in the UK then before being undercut out of business. It’s Deus Ex Human Revolution and one of the best shooty games in my collection.

You start off as the security chief of Sarif Industries and before you know it, the company’s been invaded, the top scientists have been murdered (or have they) and you’ve been left legless and armless and near death, only to be rebuilt into a half man, half machine version of your former self.

Fast forward six months and you’ve been recalled to deal with another invasion at an outlying facility and you launch off into investigating an increasing conspiracy. Along the way, you help out with the inevitable side quests and bounce between various locations.

And lots of flavour stuff on the tellies and news letters is left around the place too, with radios littered around the levels that I must listen to at some point. There’s lots of attention to detail here …

One thing though about these games is that while it’s possible to go through, all guns blazing, the game isn’t really supposed to be played like that. Bullets from the enemies hurt a lot … So the idea is to steadily go through the levels, eliminating enemies undetected (and you get a bonus for just making them unconscious too).

Deus Ex Human Revolution is a game I’ll keep going back to occasionally, it was good to revisit it again in the last few months.

The follow up game, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, takes place a couple of years after this one. There’s a prologue that sees you being sent in to a desert hotel to extract an operative that’s in trouble.

The world situation is dealing with fallout from the end of the first game, where people with augmentations are subjected to a form of digital apartheid. They’re forced to relocate to segregated living areas amidst further separation and discrimination.

They definitely upped the ante with the graphics, one thing to look out for being the increase in detail on display. That’s having the freedom to make levels in daylight, for all that lovely light, shadow and reflection detail. It’s also being able to add in curves to the levels. Prague of DXMD feels a lot more like a proper city than the Detroit and Hengsha levels in DXHR.

That came with a cost though, it took me 4 years to go back to this one because I bounced off the game thoroughly when it came out due to crash bugs. (The lighting didn’t like the AMD card I had at the time)

It looked great in the night time too.

I enjoyed this one a lot when I played it back in May and going back to DXHR again was partly so I could remind myself of what had gone before before tackling another run at the newer game. Hopefully we see a third game in the series, the first two Adam Jensen games were pretty good and I’m intrigued to see where they would have taken the story.

There have been other Deus Ex games over the years, DXHR was not the first … I’ve talked about these before but here’s the rough timeline :

2027 Deus Ex : The Fall. We don’t talk about this game.

2027 later – Deus Ex Human Revolution : Adam Jensen’s first game.

2029 Deux Ex Mankind Divided : Adam Jensen’s second game.

2052 Deus Ex : the original game, released in June 2000.

2072 Deus Ex Invisible War, which is another game we don’t really talk about.

I should probably have more of a look at the timeline sometime. It’s time to sign off for at least a few days though. Doing a post a day can be pretty wearing, although it’s been great talking about the old games again. In the meantime,

Have a great christmas everyone, such as it is in these weird times.

Stay safe, be well.

Day 23 ! Home of Darth

by Sleepypete

December 23, 2020

9:44 pm

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advent, games, space

Hello everyone,

Day 23, what’s behind the door ?

Two models today, the frontage of Darth Vader’s palace place and a tiny little TIE craft.

And a return of the Master of Orion 2 cd … I meant to talk about these games a while ago but got sidetracked. There are a few games to talk about today, first a bit of fantasy.

This one is Master of Magic, an all time legendary classic from the 90s again. This one was a real headache to run … As well as needing 4MB of system memory to give you enough Expanded Memory, it needed a huge amount of Conventional Memory too. It’s really good that those terms have been consigned to the dustbin of history and we don’t need to think of them any more !

So, what’s the game ? Think Civilisation. But add in magic and a fantasy world. You play one of 5 wizards, aiming to be the first to learn and cast the Spell of Mastery, at which point all of your competitors would be banished from the realm and you’d win. You could also banish them the traditional way by storming their castles. Instead of different civilisations with minor differences, you could play as Humans, Elves, Orcs, Halflings, Dark Elves and so on. The differences were much more pronounced, with certain races having buildings locked away from them. There were also 5 colours of magic too, which was probably inspired by the Magic the Gathering card game.

No one refuses the Girl Scout Cookie Squad

It also had a nice little tactical battle sequence, which was another major plus that set it aside from the Civilisation games. It’s a wonder that there has never been a Master of Magic 2, because this game had absolute legend status in its day.

Next up is Master of Orion (Moo).

This one was a space strategy and one of the earliest of its genre on PC to break through. You colonised stars, created fleets and attempted to dominate the galaxy again. One curious wrinkle was that the tech tree was randomised for each game, with some techs being locked out. That introduced a certain amount of variation between games. Another classic of its day and the follow up was Master of Orion 2 (Moo2).

I see someone was adopting my favourite colour in these games, the blood red banner. Whereas Moo allowed you to build incredibly massive fleets with up to 32,000 ships in a stack (each capable of firing multiple warhead missiles), Moo2 had a fleet point mechanic. The limit is off to the right there, the 23 ships owned (50 ships supported). Bigger ships needed more fleet points. Moo2 also allowed extra food grown on one planet to be moved by freighter to hungry planets.

Moo had some aspects which were better but Moo2 was the game I was hooked on for a couple of decades until Stellaris came along.

We don’t talk about Master of Orion 3.

There’s a new Master of Orion game out as well, I was too addicted to Stellaris to properly check that one out but … there’s a Steam sale on at the moment …

On Stellaris …

I still go back to Stellaris, although I don’t think it’s quite the game it used to be. Complication has been added, which is ok if the AI is equipped to play that complication. It’s felt like the AI might have been left behind a bit.

That said though, it’s still an incredibly good space strategy game.

I think I need to hit post now though (getting late !).

Stay safe everyone, be well.