Yeah.. Minecraft is still in the portal picture for me. on the upside, I am enjoying peaceful mode, and keeping it shallow in order to learn a bit more about the pillagers... from outside the villages. I really rather like the new villagers.. and their trading updates, thank you, Mojang. on the downside, I still dont like the pillagers showing up on my front lawn and tormenting my sweety kitty, or in my sheep pen out back, although the wandering merchant has been fun. I really don't mind the llamas either... and I'm glad for the milk to wash down the bitter taste of those darn illagers.
I did figure the issue with my being unable to get into 1.14 btw. turns out, it -was- my graphics driver (yeas, the integrated one). it was saying the drivers were up-to-date, but really they had not updated since 2004 or something. I had to uninstall those old drivers, and force the computer to actually update to the new ones. so now, I can get into single-player snapshots and updates for longer than 5 seconds. I'm still having issues with the portal into realms though... boo. Feels like a familiar issue though... very familiar.
update: the portal to realms fixed itself. yay! also, they made the pillager patrols follow the same rules as the other mobs in minecraft. put down enough light, and they wont spawn there. double yay! now.. to figure out just why there was only one villager left in my first town. I know they were not terribly pleased with me, when i was there last. but did they all move away? I didn't see them arrive in the second village i had been roosting in... where did they all go?
Here's a small shout-out to a few other good portals (games) that i have gotten a quick chance to check out. These ones seem to work fine for low-end PC's, like mine, and I find them worthy of the time spent looking at them.
What do I consider low-end? well, anything below the GB I suppose. something that could be dl'd easily.. and played on my aged(read: a tinkerers dream for some.. and a nightmare to everyone else) win 7 nyvid pc. ie.. nothing special in power, space, or graphics.
Rimworld
yeah, ok, i know, it seems like such a graphic fail... but really, its a fine bit of enjoyment if your looking for a top-down time management style game. your three little people's crashland on a random planet, and they not only the need to survive... with all the crazy-arse animals biting at their heels, radiation, fire, or blighted wheat to make everyone jump to the emergency.. but they also need to thrive, with warring bands of tribes tromping through, tradesfolk, and mechmachine madness.. while learning new applications of workstations, keep the place healthy, happy, and clean, a bit of learned energy saving, some rocket science, and other such improvements in the effort to once more try to get off the planet. keywords: components, components, components. your going to need a whole lot of them... and that's just to be able to get to the point where you have a chance to be able to make them.
Stardew Valley.
You, like me, love the harvest moon games, right? well, here's one at least as good and in a lot of ways better. you don't -have- to be a farmer, but it sure helps. You don't -need- to mine, and a deep mine it is, but it sure is an enriched adventure. You don't have to marry either... but it connects you to the little town like not much else can. and all that is just scratching the surface. If you can, Give the creator some appreciative applause, its inspired and much deserved.
Graveyard keeper.
Get ready to laugh.. or at least a little muhahaha under your breath, at this one. there is this.. really confused... new graveyard keeper in the village... and a lot is expected of him, judging by the numerous quests he is ladled with from the start. another time-management sort... its worth the time spent just trying to 'catch-up' to the goings-on right there in the immediate area. corpses, talking skulls, a crazy donkey, and a guy who lives in a barrel as well. the need for improving the area, chopping trees, mining stone, defending against slimes and bats.. making chopping blocks and anvils to create better headstones and borders for the graveyard improvements.. making enough coin for a visit to the farmer for seeds, or for another whetstone, nevermind whats needed for better knowledge in which to make these things.. and this beast-o-burden of a 4-footed Godfather is demanding a bushel of carrots just for going this way and that on the road!
The colonists.
little self-aware robots are seeking a new home in their grand desire to live like humans, land on a random world, with likely prospects and take to building a home for themselves. Yet, another time management sort... this one is quirky but quite a bit of fun. especially with the little roadblock disagreements before the repavers are set in motion. The biggest worry, I have found thus far is.. limited surface resources. fortunately, you can move where you want the collections to be made. so if your woodcutter is clear to the left of the screen.. you -can- just ask them to cut into the forest on the right side of the screen... just might take a bit to get them to collect enough to do anything with. and I just love the names they give the various buildings. "shanta's workshop"
The Bard's Tale Trilogy "Remastered".
An old classic game once more brought to the front of the class and showing off the nicest improvements. you start with several characters in a snow-bound city with a quest to stop the bad-guy triggering all the snow! Wander the city, taking on random barbarians, mad dogs and the occasional skeleton mob while leveling up your group, enabling them to take on more dangerous creatures and the dark of the underground. and that's just the first of three games piled nicely into one.
Planetbase.
This game is a little like Rimworld.. and a whole lot like a game I recall... was called Space Colony. but instead of mostly improving the colony from the perspective of the characters, it's mostly from the perspective of the various 'upgrades'. adding more machines which would help improve the expansion of the colony from the local weather, meteors, and expected wear n tear. ...and yet, somehow, make room for traveling tourists.
other.. possible... lower-end time-management style games, if you are concerned about graphic limits.. (I haven't tried these games as of this posting.. as yet, anyway.. but i hope to sometime here.. well, but for Roller Coaster tycoon 2, which is the best of the series imo.)
Embark (like rimworld), Project Hospital, Prison Architect, Townsman, Rescue HQ, and Terraria.
There's also the higher-end games that really look interesting in general.. if your really -not- concerned about graphics limits and space. (again, haven't been there.. yet.. but maybe someday)
Staxel, Ark Survival Evolved, Dawn of Man, Far Cry Primal, Astroneer, Satisfactory, My Time in Portia, Simcity series, Subnautica, the Tropico series, Anno, The Sims 4 and its different installments, the elder scrolls: Skyrim, Fable, Dungeon Keeper, Alchemist's Awakening, Ghost of a Tale, Startopia, Bannished, Owlboy, Foundation,2-point Hospital, and Craft the World.
meanwhile... life goes on in the fantasy land of mabinogi. Kita is once more trying to update her mining skill.. ugh! Windmill is still fairly useless, even at rank 3, not much can be hit with it, and even when it does, it leaves the low level imps ready to kick her butt. the chain weapon is still the best of melee weapons... ok ok, nothing much compares to her twin glads.. plus a boost of speed from final strike.(except maybe the lag monster, whose daunting freeze spells that are a serious killer... and the changes they made to places like fido dungeon to 'make combat more even'.. they meant to say "deadly" to Kita.) They merged servers recently, so am now trying to wait patiently for them to give us a chance to get our names back from the doppelgangers from other servers. what a mess it is.
