What Did We Play Yesterday?

I would be remiss not to mention my recent obsession with Cookie Clicker. Both myself and kiddo are currently playing, and the bonding has been lovely. This is a very good game to play with a stat-obsessed child.

I deleted my game file 400 days ago, started a new one, then forgot about it until last month. But knowledge of past lives has made this playthrough a lot more efficient. I was gonna ascend at x777 but I keep missing it because I get a dragon flight or some other thing, so I'm not sure when I'll do my next ascension but as of this morning I'm at 6662 prestige so it's gonna be a good one.

I am once again trapped in a seasonal event. Easter has a lot of neat loot and frankly I'm not fucking around anymore. I'm gonna hit the megafarm circuit and knock it out in a few days.

I've been exploring megafarms and finding interesting features. In this one, the owner has fenced off part of their farm with farmhands and orchards to keep normies from interfering. With what, I couldn't say, since they're orchards! But it demonstrates different ways you can have a farm that caters to visitors and still have private areas without having to set up a million permission booths.

I finally started work on melon avenue. It contains all the melon there ever has been or ever will be. Nothing but melon.

Decided to play around on some of the extra modes on Spirits Abyss. I'm terrible, but I still enjoyed it!

In a desperate bid not to play Farm Together 2, I fired up Emulation Station because if you don't check in regularly it logs you out of Retroachivements. I have no idea why I had Adventure Island for Gameboy in my stash but I accidentally selected it and here we are.

It's an extremely kind platformer that is honestly kinda boring. At times, I had no idea what was happening, but be assured if you simply keep moving you'll find your way to the end. I never did figure out how the egg leveling up thing works or what it does, and that's ok. Adventure Island is doing its best.

I'm experimenting with terrain patterns in Farm Together 2. Made an actual checkerboard and filled it with bushes. They're supposed to be in sort-of seasonal order, with spring-blooming facing my cherries which are also spring-blooming, and summer facing the summer tropical section. It's a little tricky because for example only black mulberries bloom in spring, but winter had I think 4/6 varieties that bloom. It's a work in progress. I like it so far.

I was thinking about how I've glommed onto this game lately. I don't consider myself stressed per se, the State of Living has changed for most of us and I've adapted to that, but I think a big part of what draws me into this game right now is order. I can construct extremely orderly, logical environments that still have a lot of creative elements and--design wise--surprises. Looking over my color-coded lettuce resource crops gives me a sense of satisfaction and calm. And a lot of the changes I'm making right now are actually making my farm MORE orderly and a little less chaotic. I guess I'm just working out some stuff here.

So on the one hand, I'm like... I'm nearing 200 hours in this silly farm game and I'm neglecting some of my creative projects, should I be concerned about that? And on the other hand, I'm like you know what, I'm blowing off a lot of steam playing a creative game that has $5 DLC packs and I have not hit the bottle once this is OBJECTIVELY FINE, THANK YOU.

Relocated most of the tropical trees to their new hopefully forever home, and ended up building pineapple palace. Pleased with that!

I got the idea to organize my berry bushes in a pattern so the fruiting times go from season to season. It's kind of dumb but whatever. I had to map it out on paper first.

I realized I misjudged tickets because I didn't actually understand how they work. When they first debuted, I glanced at the resources offered, was unimpressed, and never bothered redeeming any tickets and didn't worry too much about collecting them. Well, recently I decided to spend a few and that's when I realized 1) the resources improve considerably after you level up the stall and 2) the resources rotate, so when you buy, a new set of offers is loaded up. So if you wanted to upgrade a stall and you were short a resource, you could pop over to the ticket booth and try to trade for what you need. So. The more you know. 🫱🌈 🫲

If you heard delighted shrieking at any point yesterday that was me. They released decorative trees, so I got my beloved willow trees back, and promptly put them EVERYWHERE. Then I unlocked dragonfruit trees. It was truly a bounty.

I psychologically and emotionally prepared myself to move my banana and mango farms, and did so yesterday. Not only was it crazy cluttered over there, but I figured out having my coconut trees, avocado trees, and prickly pears all in that general area worked better. I need to build a different area for the other tropical fruit.

I recently discovered I like building certain fences with gates only so I can pop in and out at any point without triggering the climb animation. It is VERY fun to run in circles around these. Whee!

Finally met the Clover Parade unlock goals. For some reason, this one felt a bit grindier than the last, maybe because the last one had less event plants. I wanted the event area to be a little different so I made a hidden leprechaun grotto tucked away in the NE corner of the map.

Continuing to expand cramped areas as I unlock more lots. Cows are probably next, I've stuffed them all onto their own island and most types are 20ish animals. I'd like to get it up to about 60 per type, so the 120 cow goals are hit in 2 harvests rather than say 6. I think the game tries to encourage larger herds of animals like that. I ran out of diamonds which was EXTREMELY HORRIFYING but hopefully I'll replenish by the time I get my next land unlock.

Yesterday was a lot of event silliness. One of the event rewards is a harp, which looks just like the harp statue you craft to earn points. The difference? The real harp plays music! I experimented a bit with the clover parade road pattern, trying to find ways to isolate the horseshoe and clover, and ended up using them to top-off other roads.

I also grabbed a screen of a megafarm so you can witness the absolute craziness that is possible. This farm was so loaded with llamas, money trees, crops, and special decorations my PC was whirring like crazy trying to keep up. I wasn't entirely sure I'd get all 60 points by the end of the event so I grinded out a few goals just in case.

I experimented with ramps. I wish two ramps side-by-side merged, because it would help visually even out even-space-wide plateaus and whatnot. As it is, it just places 2 ramps side by side and you can actually get stuck in that tiny gap if you aren't paying attention.