Feel free to join up. We play with digital tools which mean you don't need to own any cards in real life to play. Link is open for next 7 days, if you see this post after then, send me a DM for a fresh link. https://discord.gg/7uwdVZCp

Previous Threads:

• Year 1
• Year 2

The Journal of Cog "Abc" Itebirid, Mayor

This journal was written as the fortress has entered its third year and elected me as Mayor on the third day of Granite. As we continued to strike the earth and forge the halls of our new Mountainhome, I must confess to the feeling of trepidation that crept into my bones after being given the reins to this fortress. The beginning of Spring has always been both a blessing and a curse in my eyes; the surface becomes lush and abundant - but with this bounty the new year also brings new horrors and tribulations for every dwarf..

Time moves quickly when you have been elected by general consensus to strategically lead a fortress of your fellow dwarves. The miracles, trials, and moments of suffering that I detail below will be broken up by the month. Specific dates will only be provided if I had the foresight to write them down. (If you're wondering, yes I did actually keep a notepad..)

Granite 102

As I settled into my new role, I pondered what I wanted my long-lasting legacy of this fortress to be. Certainly my predecessors were Dwarves among dwarves, so to speak. Porkroll had supported our burgeoning industries and delivered unto the entire community master crafters and smiths. Valentina had quite literally struck the earth to bring the fortress out of our collective hearts and minds. I feared becoming the progenitor of destruction and famine. Would any endeavor I decided upon be fruitful? I did not know but I came to the conclusion I would first invest in public works across Roomtheaters, as any good leader should, by building bridges - both literally and metaphorically. A great number of bridges in fact.

!

A caravan of Elves arrived in the second week of Granite as bridge construction was nearing completion. At first, I doubted they would have anything great, Roomtheaters is small and elves are no great crafters of metal, but I had the broker meet with them. A fool I was! The Elves, normally a blight upon hardworking Dwarves, had brought an auspicious beast for purchase. I, of course, immediately gave them what they were asking for to save the creature and bring them into the fold - a pittance if anything.

!

I took the sale and freedom (through purchase) of Hex the Grizzly Bear as an omen of the year to come and immediately assigned her to be our War Bear and later entrusted her to the Militia Commander.

The remaining days of Granite were peaceful and unremarkable, save for the slight expansion of the tavern, The Craft of Posts.

Slate 102

Slate was marked by continued expansion. The month began with the construction of levers in The Craft of Posts and their linkage to the fortresses' various bridges. Since many dwarves tend to listen to the bards there on their days off, it is an ideal location to ensure there is always at least one or two idle dwarves an arm's length away from retracting a compromised bridge or sealing an area.

!

Additionally, the Chapel of Safety's petition for further expansion into a temple was completed. A slightly audacious building, I authorized the construction of a 2x8 platinum floor since we discovered a bit more of it and 16 blocks for like 6000 zone wealth was worth it in my eyes after dumping like 6 statues and slabs in there and engraving everything but failing to meet the temple requirement.

!

Perhaps it was the display of excess wealth in the Temple that drew a new migrant later that week. As a Dwarf who does not believe in borders, I immediately accepted their petition to join. Please welcome al ustobot, dingo woman poet, to the fortress.

!

An additional 10 migrants from the Mountainhomes made their way to the fortress shortly after Al. This brought our population to 70 on the 12th of Slate.

The only other event of note as Slate drew to a close was the completion of the Mayoral room. By all accounts, it is more suitable for a Duke and a waste of space - but I have hope in my heart that I will not be re-elected again and it will be bequeathed to subsequent Mayors to make them happy.

!

Felsite 102

Felsite brought the appointment of a High Priest to the newly completed temple in the Chapel of Safety. A visitor dingo woman also brought a number of rumors from afar of Goblins marching upon a neighboring dwarf fortress. Many in the community were clamoring to go out on a raid in response to this, but I did not want to incite any deaths.

Hematite 102

The rumors of conflict on the horizon spurred me to create a new Squad during Hematite. You, dear reader, may wonder what I decided upon. A squad of Marksdwarves named Books of Meeting was established. (I completely forgot Marksdwarves squads are still tricky to get working/bugged until I noticed months later that they were not properly grabbing bolts...)

Hex, fortress mascot and warbear, kept getting into fights with wild horses that wandered into the pasture. In an effort to keep her alive and also prevent other wild animals or invaders from attacking our defenseless pastured animals, I have scheduled both squads to assign a single dwarf to guard duty when it is their month to train. This has cut down on wild horse fights significantly and, when the Captain of the Guard chased down a horse and cut its head off so viciously with a swing of their axe that the horse & its severed head landed in the river, provided hours of new songs for the Bards to recount in taverns worldwide.

Malachite 102

Malachite brought another 8 new migrants - bringing the population to 78. A human bard, presumably enamored with the dope ass bear we have, also requested to join - bringing the population to 79.

Malachite was the month a spark of inspiration struck me. My legacy would certainly be in Public Works for the fortress! I ordered the construction of four windmills upon the peak of the mountain (small hill really) we call home.

Galena 102

The month of Galena saw the construction of what many would call the pinnacle of Dwarven engineering. In an effort to ensure good morale across the entire fortress, I approved the construction of a mist generator above the Craft of Posts and central stairway.

!

The windmills were connected from above to power it.

!

Everyone loves it.

Limestone 102

Another month, another group of migrants. 10 this time. The population stands at 89.

A trade caravan from the Mountainhomes arrived. Nothing of note was for sale, but I did purchase two hens and two gobblers for eggs. In two years time we may have a bountiful flock.

Hex was injured again by another wild horse - so she has been pastured in the Craft of Posts, where the mist and numerous passerbys can ensure she doesn't die.

Sandstone 102

The Craftdwarves unionized and petitioned for a guildhall. I of course, an ardent supporter of the labor movement, begun construction on a guildhall immediately. Tis perhaps quaint compared to the ostentatious wealth displayed in the Temple or even in the Mayor's room, but the Craftsdwarves were happy with it.

!

I constructed a room for Valentina, Captain of the Guard. Also perhaps better suited for a Duke - but she's worth it.

!

Finally, I created a room for the new Dungeon Master as well as a Dungeon and future new barracks (the hospital deserves more space).

!

Timber 102

The start of Timber brought fear into my heart when the Giantess, Lecitala Sted Irol, arrived on the 8th.

!

Honestly it seemed like she just wanted to sight-see and I did not want to hunt an intelligent creature like her, but I only had a single cage trap placed near the windmills and she refused to walk near them...

When she begun chasing a poor child who was just wandering outside, I regretfully had to send a squad to intercept.

!

...A single axedwarf caught up with her and made shockingly short work of her before the rest of their squad arrived. Actually horrifying, I thought she would at least put up a fight...

Rest in Peace Lecitala Sted Irol, 8th Timber - 15th Timber.

Moonstone 102

Not much of note happened as Winter arrived. A human soldier petitioned to join the fort and of course, still believing in an open border policy until the first necromancer appears, I allowed him to join bringing the population to 90. Two dwarf children were born shortly after, bringing the total population to 92.

Opal 102

Nothing happened in Opal beyond the Bone Carver entering a trance and creating a masterpiece Horse Bone Weapon Rack. Someone will surely enjoy it...?

Obsidian 102

Obsidian brought the close of winter to the fortress. Another Human, this time a Lasher, petitioned to join for the purpose of soldiering. The population stands at 93.

A bunch of wild dingoes appeared and killed one of the pastured dogs. I kicked off the years' end celebrations with a military wide Dingo Hunt.

!

Hex certainly had fun, although I have heard reports of the Militia Commander muttering about how "no one should have to see a grizzly bear treat a dingo like a chew toy" into their drinks at the tavern...

Results

• Population grew from 58 to 93 by years end. That's 35 new dwarves, which is more than half of what we began the year with!
• We did not lose a single dwarf to death, disease, drowning, or beasts!
• We have two squads now and they are all armored/kitted out.
• The fortress has expanded significantly across all areas, except below.
• We've created a ton of wealth and the majority of the population is damn near ecstatic to be living in communist harmony.

!

Recommendations for the next Chair of the Dwarven Communist Party

• The Marksdwarf squad could probably be changed to a sword or spear squad and be even more effective. At last glance though, they may not be completely bugged as it does seem like the majority of them have raised their marksdwarf skills, but I did witness a dingo get beat to death with a crossbow instead of being fired upon - so....
• We need way more bedrooms. I did begin construction on more, but only finished a handful. I believe a number of dwarves remain without beds but thankfully the mist generator has prevented everyone but the children from being dangerously unhappy.
• The troglodytes remain below and have actually given birth so there are a number of them. I am confident the militia can easily take them, but did not break the seal.
• The corpses of the troglodytes in our refuse stockpile above keep depressing the children and should probably be tossed, since they will not be used for anything since troglodytes are sentient.
• I did start constructing some additional defenses for the pasture and main gate of the fortress (walls for what were supposed to be the epic marksdwarves to stand upon and fire from), but they remain unfinished. Do what you will.
• The Soap industry needs to be started, as it is the only thing holding the hospital back. There is an Ashery and Soap Maker workshop already built. Just needs lye or fat (dingoes maybe??)
• Be sure to choose a dwarf and give yourself a nickname!!

• Dig!

Save File: https://mega.nz/file/dztwBaZD#jPhpWZmF1R0YeLXToH9awBy2wK0K3ftR4rJ1M1044lI

For those of you who don't care, I promise this is the last post about this. All further discussion can be relegated to the matrix space.

Matrix Space: https://matrix.to/#/!tyfTFjggYNboCPZPKo:envs.net?via=envs.net

The main base isn't anything special, at least for now, but it's enough to protect from the main planet's frequent boiling storms. If any comrades need to be picked up, you can use the S.O.S. channel in the matrix space. All four stars are yellow, so no special hyperdrives are required to traverse the whole federation.

Portal Coords:

!

Hexadecimal Transcription: 4 0 6 E F E F B 4 9 1 3

Atlas Transcription: Tepaavpe Dipedigu Teudzago

Feel free to join us! No other planets except the main one in System Alpha have been discovered, so feel free to name them how you wish, and build small outposts, huge bases, or anything in between! I can't wait to meet all of you in our marxist-leninist space commune!

!astronaut-2 !astronaut-1

edit: thank you for the pin! !heart-sickle

EDIT: Holy shit thanks so much whoever made the $19.17 donation

First of all, I wasn't really a big kojima gal? I had played the first and a bit of the fifth MGS until earlier this year, where i finally finished MGS V

i realized it is an extremely precient and political game, and I think i like kojima's brand of crazy.

So then I read about death stranding. I saw the promo footage years ago, and it followed that cutscene where Deadman finds himself on that combat beach, and I assumed it was more action heavy bs that I was growing out of (hormones change your tastes what can i say), so i completely ignored it until i grabbed it on a whim recently

and anyway, WOW! so I fucking love this game. Everything is so weird. Astrology and esoterica are canon, everything is a fucking insane metaphor for something else, the world has been utterly bent the fuck over by cataclysm, and you're just a dude out there with your artificial womb, making deliveries and linking up the remnants of humanity.

I love the vibe of these little communities and holdout preppers coming together, sharing what they have to move forward into a post-cataclysmic future. I love all the stupid shit with Lockne & Malingen, I love the bridge babies, i love that one of the most potent weapons in the game is made by running around until you're so tired you piss blood, and that bloody piss gets turned into a grenade. I love having weaponized body fluids. This shit owns.

I'm not even sure death stranding 2 can live up to this.

also the multiplayer features can be a bit much (I have it set up to log in offline and to not automatically share structures because people will just spam structures in the most annoying fucking places, but they're also awesome.

I love how much cooperation and community effort is the front and foremost thing, to the point it's literally one of the stats the game tracks.

Sorry, I needed to gush about how rad this game is, years after its heyday

edit: Also if anybody is currently playing and wants to form strand contracts, i'm on the Steam PC version. I'd rather see like, specific people's stuff in my game world than like, random people's.

Right now i use strand contracts with inactive friends to sort of make it less likely i get six bridges in a forest when i go online, but i'd actually enjoy building the world map out with some people. Not gonna put my steam id out in public though, pm me for all that

Artist is "Guy-Mandude"

https://www.deviantart.com/guy-mandude/art/the-Great-wolf-Sif-Dark-souls-fan-art-429255749

Other RTS that live in my head rent free

• Maelstrom
• Alien vs Predator extinction
• Tom Clancy's Endwar
• Men of War/Faces of War
• Army Men RTS
• Axis & Allies
• Darwinia
• Ruse

It has a cool intro video https://youtu.be/MBtg8nuiv50

Playing Dark Sector to see the history of digital extremes and its baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Its really really baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

The combat has the potential to be fun if the game wasnt a frustrating boring enemy spam fest.

what have I gotten myself into and how can I enjoy it?

People bringing up asmongold saying "I hope they don't make it political" about MGS3 remake as though that's an inherently ignorant thing to say. I've played MGS3. It is an incredibly cheesy game targeted at teenagers with incoherent politics on the level of a james bond film. You have people running around saying the series is anti-war or whatever the fuck. Maybe you can find some buried recordings with the characters talking about some CIA op to topple governments or something. It is not front-and-center. All I can really think of is Ground Zeroes that has you infiltrating Guantanamo Bay. Peace Walker also has you fighting alongside some group who were socialist IRL.

Anyway I just say all this so you aren't as let down as I was when you play the MGS3 remake expecting some sort of full-throated communist propaganda.

Do it, you cowards

To be fair, I don't think this was a hugely prevalent opinion even among brain-melted gamers,

spoiler

compared to other inane bullshit they complained about like Ashley's underwear

but I did hear it come up a few times when the RE2 and RE4 remakes were topical

I've been watching some recent RE6 playthroughs to gauge how it plays with people who got into the series with the newer games and I've seen an interesting reversal where a number of people are confused by RE6 Ada, thinking she looks too different to be the same character, specifically because they think she looks too white. These same people didn't seem to have trouble accepting Leon and Chris' 2012 models

Literally barely any games that can't be played on ps4 or Xbox one.

This ps5 almost feels like a waste of 500 bucks

I finished the Elden Ring DLC, and did cleanup afterwards because I missed a couple of mini dungeons. I definitely want to make a new character and go through again. Hope everyone has had a good weekend so far

this is the mod

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3215078236

it allows you to set whatever tax rates on specific things (dividends, land etc).

I'll prolly give my thoughts on the first day of runs later, or tomorrow. But yeag, is starting if any of you want to catch it.

This talk was so good. I've been checking out the History Of Games Conference panels that are on YouTube. Hoping they're all as good as this one.

Games that I put in this category: The first spyro game (not sure about the later ones, havent played) and A Link Between Worlds are both very fun and rewarding to complete and never feel like a chore to do so.

One game that is very much NOT in this category, as is often said, is DK64 lol. But everyone says that. I've also heard people say Super Mario Oddessy is fun to beat but not fun to complete, same with BOTW because of the Koroks. People usually say this about SM Sunshine as well but I dont really mind it in this game.

Sidenote complain about the world: Sandbox games combined with my autistic obsessive compulsive need for completionism lead to me playing them with very frusterating habits lmao. No Man's Sky is the worst for me. I LOVE that game but god the respawning ROCKS ruin the experiance kind of. If the rocks stayed gone, I could use them to gradually explore the worlds I'm on in a completiony way. (Even knowing that like even a single planet is kind of impossible to fully explore let alone the entire fucking universe lol). But I cant!!!!!!

Sorry I need to shove that rant into everything. Completionist mindset also limits me with games like Terraria, Minecraft, and Starbound as well but not as badly because I at least can keep track of exploration in those (Or just dig deep pits in minecraft as I enjoy doing to waste time while I watch streams lol).

I also get myself caught in absurd goals that NOONE expects you to do and the game doesnt keep track of (no achievemnt for it or anything) sometimes like doing all coin runs in Mario 64 or marrying, seeing the 14 star event, and then divorcing every spouse in Stardew Valley lol. (I acutally havent started the second thing but it is sort of in my head as a goal).

This turned into a general rant about how my completionism effects me lmao but anyway thoughts.

I may or may not be on the verge of finally impulse buying UO, idk

Its honestly pretty alright I'm having a lot of fun with it. Better than DMC 2 I was expecting something a lot worse.

My quest to find a fromsoft game I don't like continues.

My drive to finish all the persona games has waned somewhat after finishing persona 1 and its manga.

Persona 2 IS i managed to finish as its my commute game and Persona 3 and 5 i haven't touched for a few months.

Overall the story is definitely one of the more wacky ones in the series but easy to enjoy. Gameplay is the PSP version of the game is so easy it practically plays itself, didnt have to make a new persona once just relied on story given personas and made it through. There's a lot of side content i missed but it didnt really seem that worth doing other than for completions sake the game does drag on a bit after a while. Also that side content is so hidden away discovering it organically would require talking to basically everyone after each story dungeon which is incredibly boring.

Still so far Persona 1 is my favourite out of all of the games along with its manga

Reds vs Whites, produced circa 1930 in Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in Leningrad