Games and Game-Related old and new

[Jupiter.blues]

@Jupiter.blues

Report back with Blue Prince thoughts, if you can. Im still curious about it.

Well I was laid off work(along with 95% of the company after being acquired by a larger company, surprisingly I was among the last to go as I “had value”, but I knew my time was coming this month so im not surprised) so I decided to get it and try it myself now that I have a whole lot of time

No spoilers: I “beat” the game in 15 hours. But it turns out I didnt really beat the game after beating the game. Of the 46 rooms, I still havent unlocked 31 of them not sure if I beat it too early by chance or if this was by design, but there are several more things in the game that I didnt do and apparently there are several more things to uncover. I wont saw what it is but I think I may have another 10-20 hours to go before I uncover the rest of the house’s secrets.

Should you try it?
I’d say, if you like games like Myst, The Witness, etc. you’ll likely like this one. But I have to admit that I wasnt a fan, personally, with the rouge-lite aspect of room creation each day and having to repeat many things. But as you keep playing, the game makes the randomness easier on you so you can do less repeated stuff and focus on the puzzles more, and you’re gona need it.

The puzzles themselves were pretty good and I would call most of them medium-difficulty(edit, a few are very hard if your not familiar with some things in real life, but not impossible)

I think its worth the price.

Edit: It turns out that this is by design apparently, so im still trying to beat the game.

[sheralmyst]

I have uncovered tons of stuff and have only a few rooms left to discover, but luck, or bad luck, keeps me from being able to draw what I need when I need it…in a way, that’s okay because I keep aiming to discover all rooms.
I got very close at one point. Made it to the chamber but could not reach anything except a coal cart…

[Jupiter.blues]

I got pretty lucky I guess as I happened to get the magnifying glass early on and I was examining everything untill i was able to find the code for the apple orchard, which is a HUGE help for making the rest of the game easier.

And as soon as i got a shovel, i started spamming the dig button everywhere, even in places that didnt have designated dig spots, and i found a blueprint that also makes the game a tiny bit easier.

And after opening the west gate, that also makes a pretty large difference as each of those extra rooms will either give you a permanent upgrade, or temporary, but major, upgrades to your run.

[sheralmyst]

Yep. Opened the Orchard and the West gate but I have gotten the power room opened only once and the power is not running to the pump room which I need to lower the reservoir. I am using the fountain to enter the central room needed to solve the game but I cannot lower the reservoir without filling the fountain unless I have power to the large holding tank…if only I could draw the power room again…and the pump room in the same run

[Jupiter.blues]

@sheralmyst

I am using the fountain to enter the central room needed to solve the game but I cannot lower the reservoir without filling the fountain

Without spoiling anything, just keep solving other house mysteries and you will find the solution to that problem to be trivial.

As an update in my previous message, after the credits roll after “beating” the game, which opens up the game to what is essentially the real game, this part of the game is tough. Like, really tough. Like, you really need to like puzzles

No spoilers still, but i’ll just say that you dont need to worry about missing anything on your first attempt at finding room 46. Just focus on that. Second time around, you can do all the things you have missed. There are lots more mysteries you’ll need to solve AFTER, and then some VERY large mysteries that can only be solved after reaching room 46 a second time(easier to do once you do it the first time).

I briefly looked online to see what im getting myself into and realised that I may not have what it takes to beat those as im not that good at puzzle solving but ill try on my own for some time before looking up any answers.

[sheralmyst]

These were the 2 runs that got me the most info. I even made a jackhammer though I had no idea where to use it. Guess I should have just chopped up everything

Summary

As you can see, the foundation did not end up in the best place

[Jupiter.blues]

No way. I have the foundation in the same exact location apparently the best place to put it is closer to the entrance hall but I didnt know that till AFTER I placed it and learned that it was permanent for that save file, not a bug. Lol.

As for the jackhammer. I can never get all the requirements in the same run to craft it and I have yet to have made a workshop as it always is available when I dont have the gems. Lol. Im pretty sure I know what to do with it and im pretty sure there is more than one place where it can be used, but I just cant seem to create it.

[Polyphemus]

@sheralmyst, @Jupiter.blues , I am so glad it’s you doing this, and not me.

Judging by your posts, it doesn’t sound like a game - it sounds like slow torture. By now I would have torn all my hair out in frustration, then thrown my computer out of the window. possibly followed by myself.

[Jupiter.blues]

Haha. Understandable.

Honestly, if you just want to reach room 46 the first time to satisfy your curiosity of what is inside this mysterious room, most people seem to have reached it in around 10-20 hours and that would be a good stopping point and you can feel good that you completed the game on your own.

If you want the puzzle torture part, keep going after getting the first ending to get the true ending but thats a whole different animal and im not sure I can recommend that part to anyone unless you absolutely love to be challenged.

Its been quite hard at this part that I am at and I had to look something up today and thought to myself “how on earth was I ever going to figure THAT out on my own?” If I cant figure anything else out after this, im just going to look up how to get the true ending tomorrow just so that I can have the piece of mind knowing what the ending even was. No shame in taking shortcuts if it means I can keep enjoying the game.

[sheralmyst]

I would likely be pulling my hair out as well except that I still have rooms I have not found. The curiosity of what may be in them keeps me going.
But today, the only puzzle I am facing is putting up trim in my bathroom…I am really ticky about trim and of course nothing is really square or plumb in any house but especially one that has settled in over the last 70 years.
Caulk is my new best friend.
Hope to run thru another day or 2 in the Blue Prince tonight

[sheralmyst]

Tool shed and commissary will give you the needed items for a jackhammer. Just need to take that old shovel to the next level.

[toddumptious]

@Jupiter.blues I had to renew a medical prescription and the cats were also due their monthly injections so all my videogame money went bye bye, blue prince will have to wait another week.

Sorry to hear about your job loss but glad to hear you made the most of that time by utilizing escapism to its fullest extent.

I made the terrible mistake of playing Minecraft again and it got its hooks in deep. I found this village that spawned perfectly into its environment with a dozen houses and 4 rows of unbroken paths (a miracle in minecraft… or they’ve improved the proc gen on them in recent years?)

So I’ve been just slowly expanding that village and doing the usual minecraft tech progression, though at a much slower pace. I think I only bothered digging for diamonds once.

I’ve also been exposed to google searches AI and holy crap it is BAD and WRONG all the time.

Any search I do now, has a 5 second delay while its AI tries to directly give me the info I’m looking for, sourced from the pages I would have been looking through anyway…

And all of its info is wrong. all of it. Because it not only pulls from known Minecraft Facts, but it can’t differentiate between fan discussion of features they’d like to see.

E.g its been a few years since I’ve played properly, sometimes I forget what an item is for, or what its other uses are, or maybe I’m just checking to see if it has had any new uses added over the years I’m unaware of.

I’ll just search “minecraft OBJECT X uses” and the google AI will be top of the search list, with the objects uses, and the first two are usually false, and pulled from what fans would like the object to do (e.g netherack should be an infinite fire source in furnaces).

It cannot differentiate between people discussing things you can do in a game, and stuff people have wished you could do in the game. Great Job Google XD

It’s even funnier when you can look up where it pulled its sources from, and the link is always just some reddit post by a fan saying “hey we should be able to do X with X”

Seeing you and @sheralmyst talking about this game has me excited to try it even more now. I think I’m gonna treat myself next week to wanderstop AND blue prince. To wash this minecraft taste down with.

[Mad-Hatter]

@toddumptious

google searches AI and holy crap it is BAD and WRONG

Found this out recently while asking for the ABS FUSE LOCATION on a particular motorcycle I’ve been working on (with no workshop manual).
The ai quoted the make, model & year before wisely directing me to look in the fuse panel under the steering wheel near the pedals.
Further down, the search result listed reddit conversations about pulse rings & sensors, completely skipping the vital word ‘fuse’.

At this stage I think we’re safe from the Terminators.

[sheralmyst]

Don’t get me started on Google AI. It is just awful.
I am trying a paid for search engine…yeah. It’s so bad, I am considering paying for my search engine.
@toddumptious hit the jackpot with the Minecraft village. I have only once ever found one that was not sitting above a near bottomless cavern just a couple of blocks below the village.
When I built my current PC, I forgot to grab my Minecraft files. Really hate it because I had the perfect village. I had built a Falling Waters replica house for myself just outside the village using a fantasy pack mod then started a track which I expanded with me as I explored. It ran thru mountains and caverns and across lakes and over floating islands. I had spent months slowing expanding and decorating as I explored.
Then I lost it… by forgetting to grab the save file.

[Polyphemus]

It’s not just Google. A lot of the articles and websites claiming to offer advice and information are now written by AI - with confusing, alarming, and sometimes dangerous results.

Yesterday I was searching for information regarding analysis of a particular transistor. I found a website purporting to offer manufacturer’s data. I was a little suspicious when the site gave some very generic information - descriptions of what a transistor is, rather than what this particular transistor does. Part way through the third paragraph, it became clear that the writer of the article was randomly mixing in information relating to plumbing fittings. Very worrying, considering this is advising people how to deal with electricity and expensive equipment.

It became obvious that the article was written by a somewhat confused A.I. - then I realised that this article is out there - it’s available for other AIs to read, and treat as reliable source material. And at that point, things got a bit scary.

We have AIs giving inaccurate advice, because they don’t have the understanding to distinguish different kinds of information. Then we have other AIs using that inaccurate information to generate even more inaccurate information. And as information providers find it uneconomic to use actual human beings as filters, the situation can only deteriorate.

[sheralmyst]

This could explain why I saw so many strangely worded descriptions when searching for the things needed for my bathroom remodel. I thought maybe I was seeing bad Chinese to English translation but it was much worse than in the past. Must be AI descriptions I was reading
Good Lord! I hope I ordered an actual bathtub!

[Mad-Hatter]

@Mad-Hatter

we’re safe from the Terminators.

On second thoughts maybe these discussed reasons are why we need to fear the Terminators.
The foundations of future ai are all based in the here & now… which is essentially setting up a singularity to be utterly insane.

Sure, the best way to help with pollution is to STAMP ON ALL HUMANS AND DECIMATE THE WORLD. so nature can one day return & blossom over the land.
Warning: results may vary. Some extinction may occur. Consult your lollipop for verification before installing laser tech into your faucets.

[Polyphemus]

@sheralmyst

I hope I ordered an actual bathtub!

If you want to have a laugh, try asking Google “How reliable is a curved bathtub?”

It will disappear into a hell of major accident statistics.

[sheralmyst]

Well I learned that the Bathtub Curve is a real thing and a lot of people on Reddit have a lot to say on curved bathtubs.
…according to a post on Reddit…

[Jupiter.blues]

I was reading an article about a car I wanted to buy, the new Subaru BRZ. With the amount of research I tend to do before I buy any car, I knew nearly everything about the car and its various trim levels and even its flaws. One article I read, mentioned that that car had a turbocharged 4cylinder engine and all-wheel drive. This was, in fact, very wrong. It is a 4cylinder engine, yes, but it is not turbocharged and it is rear-wheel drive. Online, there were many talks about what engine the new model would have and it was theorised/hoped for that it would be a turbo and AWD car but it was never a fact. This tipped me off that it was likely AI generated. What fully confirmed that for me was that it was stating interior specifications from what I believe may have been the toyota supra, because one image from the article was also from that car

Im not sure if that article is still up or not, but that was a disaster.

I think its safe to assume that A.I. wont be taking over that many human jobs any time soon, and any current human jobs replaced with A.I. will likely be replaced or assisted by a human all over again in the future.