u/noob_dragon — reddlx

Is solo mode worth playing nowadays? What's the recommended way to play solo?

I beat Palworld recently and it kind of put me in the mood to play Ark again, but probably solo this time as I would like to actually hang on to my save file across time. The biggest issue I've had with Ark in the past is that me and some buddies start it on a dedicated server and play for some time, but we lose interest fast and then that effort all feels wasted. I would kind of like to have something I can start and stop as I need to and hopefully hold on to my save file and work on it as needed.

I only have ASE, never bothered to get ASA, but I could be convinced to try that if people think the solo experience is exceptionally better. However, I only have DLC for ASE. I never got around to playing genesis so I kind of would like to do that content for once.

I think the biggest concern I have is how I would fit mods into the playthrough. From personal experience, Ark almost requires mods to have a good time. I think the biggest ones are structures plus and stuff that automated breeding, since the breeding in this game is a god awful experience. Do I still need these types of mods to enjoy Ark single player, or does single player do special stuff that makes it easier? The other concern I would have too is that too many mods and it could break my save file, or make it difficult to uninstall the game and come back to it later. Although, it seems like the consensus nowadays is to play on the pre-aquatica patch and stick to that, so maybe that makes things better.

Last, are there any recommended rates to use? Like a blanket x5 or whatever?

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u/noob_dragon — 2 days ago

▲ 21 r/rootgame

Opinions on workshop marquise?

I've been wondering how many people have tried out the marquise 2.0 and what their thoughts are. From here: https://www.therootdatabase.com/faction/workshop-marquise/.

For those that don't know about it, it gives cats some key buffs.

The more workshops you have, the more movement and battle actions you get. One of the workshops gives you an additional card draw, and the last one gives you +1 to hits. Your initial workshop is the one that makes march 2 movements, so if this workshop is lost you are down to one movement per march.
Overwork can trigger all of your sawmills with one action. You still need a card per sawmill though.
You craft after your 3 actions.
During setup, keep goes on a fortress spot? I'm not sure what this means so I skipped it.

I had this in play for the first time yesterday, with a newer player playing as the cats. I've been feeling for a while that cats felt too underpowered, so decided to bust this out. I also was using the squires & disciples deck which does seem to help the cats out a bit too.

The cats did feel more balanced with the buffs. Rats were also in play, and to me it felt like the cats were actually to keep up with the rats. Usually when I see this combination the rats have a very easy time taking out the cats unless if multiple factions cooperate to kill the warlord occasionally. The rats did still win though, but it was at least close between the cats and the rats and the only reason the rats won was because I focused the cats since they were going to win first.

Despite the buffs, I think there is still a key weakness of the cats that is left unaddressed. Namely, the shear amount of cardboard that they can possibly leave in one location that can be targeted by an aggressive faction for the VP needed to close out the game. I have seen rats win multiple times by killing cat cardboard on their last round for a burst of VP and this problem does still remain. I feel like maybe cats should have some sort of mechanism for moving their lumber around their supply chains, maybe similar to how badgers can move their relics but not requiring a movement action.

Also, the buffs are not as large as it might seem, since building workshops for cats is a big commitment. They really need sawmills for extra lumber and recruiters for manpower, so the possibility of realizing the extra actions from the workshop is not guaranteed. The bigger buff IMO is being able to craft after building the workshop, which is something I feel like cats should have had in the first place.

Overall, I think this is a decent buff to cats without making them overpowered. I'm pretty sure a decent rat, mole, eyrie, or badger player would still have no problems handling the buffed cats. This is better for the fiction of the game too IMO, I'm pretty sure lorewise the cats are not supposed to be pushovers that everybody ignores due to being so weak.

u/noob_dragon — 3 months ago

▲ 105 r/DeathStranding

TIL Heart Lake is a real place, even located in the Sierras which could be close to where it was in the game

u/noob_dragon — 3 months ago

▲ 0 r/Humboldt

Any board game meetups wed to fri evenings?

I was going to be in the area at some point on those days, and I was wondering if there were any public board game groups that meet around then. Board gaming is a big hobby of mine.

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u/noob_dragon — 3 months ago

▲ 2 r/Trackballs

Kensington slimblade pro vs Orbit for an ambidextrous gaming mouse?

I normally use my gameball thumb version for gaming, also I game almost exclusively on a couch, but I have been noticing that for longer gaming sessions that my right hand/shoulder kind of hurts. Also, it has never been that particularly fast for stuff like strategy games for fps games, strategy games being more important for me.

Looking around and people seem to suggest one of these or some other finger mouse for gaming. I did some looking myself and the orbit and slimblade pro caught my eye the most in terms of how comfortable they look. I like the idea of an ambidextrous mouse since it allows me to switch off to my left hand. I do have small hands so on paper the orbit would be better for me, but the lack of buttons is kind of off putting. I am normally used to having m4 and m5 as forward/back buttons for browsing.

Anybody have any experience between these two mice? Maybe I will just order both and return the one I like less, but I kind of hate contributing to e-waste.

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u/noob_dragon — 3 months ago