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After taking a break from the game and returning to this I figured out I messed up a bit and went back a few loops. Ended up getting the VTOL prepared and ready on loop 18 instead! Only major thing I haven't done in this optimization attempt is scanning the propeller, but I'm all set to do so the next loop. Looking forward to the next update!

dd/mm/yyyy is a perfectly valid standard used in most of the world.

I appreciate you keeping the quality high!

With the latest update I've had visual issues. It starts out sharp, but within seconds it start turning fuzzy, after a bit I struggle to read text and it doesn't look good.

You can see what loop you're at when looking at your save, but it's for sure a way more comfortable playthrough if you don't worry about what loop you're at. Hope you're having fun!

VTOL by loop 21! Though I messed up and missed the engine so will have to redo the whole loop....

And believe it or not, I've actually been doing quite a bit of other stuff the last few weeks. Life is happening!

Optimizing, optimizing, optimizing... I'm finally able to complete the VTOL in my attempt to do this in as few loops as possible. Messed up and forgot the engine so will have to redo the longest effing loop I've ever done where I go to every single area the long way, which I didn't even know for sure was possible until now. Loop 21.

Haha, thanks. I just started a new save because of the latest update that changed the travel times making my previously optimised saves no longer optimal lol

I need to get a life

Alright, let's give an update.

I went all in on skipping the artifact in Laurion (for now, at least), and instead, based on my optimized santoblast loop 5-save went for Astrape instead. And man, are there many ways to play this! I do not know how far off a "perfect" run I am, but I suspect it it possible to clear Astrape (excluding the aircraft obv, but including all blue actions) by the end of loop 10. I did not manage that, but I did manage to find the faster path through the highlands, get the artifact, and even quite a few blue actions that are not requisites for getting resources or the artifact by the end of loop 10. Most admin and civilian blue actions are left though. I'm done there. The first loop I got to Astrape was loop 8 - loop 6 and 7 was pretty much the same as previously, just optimized for getting to Astrape instead of going back to Laurion. Key for 6 is to get to Laurion and get water and fuel, for 7 just fuel.

This took so many attempts and re-attempts and sheesh. Just getting the most out of everything but still getting away from Santorini in time in pretty much every loop, one way or another. Especially annoying when trying to get to Santorini and back with the tram in as early a loop as possible! I still have a bunch of blue actions in Santorini because doing them would delay solving Astrape! I suppose, though, that now that Astrape is stable I could park the rover in Santorini, take the tram and do all the blue actions in Astrape, get back, do all-or-most blue actions in Santorini, then start heading for.. I dunno.. Pneuma?

I'd be happy to get some input, what should I go for now? I'll probably take a break and start enjoying summer a bit more now though, lol

Thanks! Yeah, I figured, and if it wasn't for that AI overuse I would have enjoyed it a lot! Bloody AI ruining good things. Once in a rare while is all good!

Generally, the quality of this game really rise from episode to episode, but in chapter 2 episode 1 the text use the "it's not this, not this, but this"-structure a few times too many. If there is AI input it's not at all obvious, but I've grown so allergic to slop that I read it into things that is just slightly too close in style. If you would try to generally avoid that specific stylistic choice, of saying what something is by saying what it isn't, I would appreciate that.

Cheers and thanks for a nice game, and you've had an amazing development in skill! 

Lol, this got me going on trying to optimize the whole game. I am not doing perfect, but I believe I am doing fairly good. I did manage to get Santoblasted on loop 5, and am currently just starting loop 9 with Santorini about half done and almost through the third layer in Laurion.

tldr: Description of loops 6-8 and thoughts about what next.

Loop 6 was all about getting the shortcut to the dam and getting all the way to Santorini without running out of power or water, loop 7 much the same and prepping some blue actions. Could optimize them more, but diminishing returns.. I didn't really see any major reason for trying yet again.

Loop 8, the shortcut was prepped enough to go directly, get two boxes, continue. Do a bunch of blue actions, get the suit, the fuel, the speed filter, and the solar power tech. Return through shortcut to Talos, because that requires way less power than it would going straight to Laurion. Pit stop, get solar going to get the last few points of power needed to go through the tunnel to Laurion. In Laurion, just install the generator and sped up water filter, get all the remaining blues, then drill baby drill!

Plan for 9 is much the same as 8, but maybe get three boxes this time. Could go for Astrape after Santorini instead of Laurion, or maybe Pneuma. That would adhere to Shadowsand's plan of making it more difficult to drill but with more stuff that can make it easier spread out in the different locations, and I'm currently done with blues in Laurion. Since I will need to return to research places later anyway, maybe I'll save the drilling for those instances instead. On the other hand, doing those trips without that artifact support is not quite optimal.

It's a few scenes later, just after the girls and Artemis are chatting in and by their pool. 
"Kapuletti's safehouse
A few hours later"
MC and the dog.
"...."
"(So, my old man was a modern-day Genghis Khan before meeting mom.)"
"(Makes you wonder if I've got any step-siblings running around out there...)"

And if the rest of what I wrote is confusing you might want to play/replay "Leap of Faith" which has.. a few interconnected references with Artemis that seem random if you've only played the one game, but is hinting on possibly rather important stuff if you've played both.

Yes, several. The first ones, which I'm sure you've encountered, are the ones that make it at all, so you don't have to replace your suits oxygen all the time, and the one that automates it. Then there is an artifact that gives you more resources for everything, including when you replace oxygen in the rover. Last is from the latest update. Not going to spoil exactly how, but it will remove the extra losses of air in the rover.

I just did a challenge from here to get "santoblasted" in an early loop. Managed to get santoblasted on loop 6, and believe it is quite possible to do as early as loop 5. So I'm sure you surely can get to the quarry and back in loop 7. I got to the dam on my first try, loop 5, but too late to cross it. You just need to install the water machine in the rover, get the stuff from the lost rover, charge up and go to get to the dam, at least, on the first attempt.
The reason why you can't get to Santorini on the first attempt is less because of resources, and more because even if you have enough it blows up before you get all the way. You'll need the code so you can cross the dam earlier first either way. edit: yeah, I was probably wrong there. I'm not strictly sure if it is possible or not to get to Santorini in time if you cross the river just as the dam closes, but I agree and believe that you could get just short of Santorini even if there is enough time.

2nd attempt: Got Santoblasted on loop 6!

Was a few minutes too late to cross the river on loop 5, but I feel as if my guess is correct - I messed around a bit too much on loop 4, and believe those missing minutes could be won there. I do not believe loop 4 is possible at all.

Damn you got me with the dads! That the MCs were half-siblings was indeed something I suspected already, then the door open, I was like whaaat! And then the twist.. or maybe anti-twist? I cannot help but wonder if there is more to it. How much have you and Drifty cooperated really? I will have to get started on u4ia and see if there is more there...
Oh, by the way, in one line this MC is wondering about his step-siblings, but what he actually wonders about should be half-siblings, no?

This is a great story! I quite like the characters and all. 

If the story has 5 stars, the characters 4.5 stars, the renders in general maybe 3.5-4 stars. The MCs "tool" gets 1.5 stars tops, though. When most everything else is rather good it really sticks out.

Challenge accepted!

1st attempt: I managed to get to the other side of the river on loop 7, but not enough gas to get up the hill.. so I stopped there, had a picnic for a nice first view. Am absolutely sure loop 7 is possible, but maybe as early as loop 5 if perfectly optimized?

oh, interesting! I had missed that. Not that I got much out of it the one loop I went to check it out, lol. Managed to get 6 rounds out if it before I croaked, how many have you done?

You might want to try to sound it different? I'm sounding Astrape as AS-tra-PE, no silent letters.

I've got the machine prepped and ready to go for the next update! It is quite a project to fix it up, feels good to be able to.. test it the first thing I do once the update is here! Just got to wait half a year or so..

"Played only a short while" does not support criticism "its aftermath was not fully explored". The story is, indeed, simpler than it could have been, but this criticism does not well reflect how that is, nor what the actual space for improvement actually is.

Getting a bug when I try to buy guild merchs, I get farmhands instead

The AI text is obvious and following slop style and pacing.

Finally unlocked what action you can do if you manage to do all the sleeps! It is an exciting foreshadow to future versions, I think..
Took me 7945 sleeps (and 159 dreams) to get it though! Automated a quick loop that got me above 5k power so I could run as many sleeps as possible while running it in the background. All current actions unlocked, now on loop 53!

Oh, downloaded version, don't go trying to unlock the sleep action in the web version.

Yes, I can work around it, speeding through them. I would just prefer a button in the options or something. A bit easier, and none of the scenes instead of a speedthrough.

Really good arrows that can be made later though, and the armor can be upgraded.. but the main win you get with elves is definitely the cabbage soldiers lol

**Edit: I checked again now, with version 0.19.2, and an activity has been added there in the progress page now.**

Probably not. There is no activity to unlock next to it in the progress page at least. I have unlocked all activites but two in the windows version, and both of those are somewhere completely different.

Due to how some characters are presented (Ryoko, Shika and Charlotte), I prefer not viewing H-scenes with them. Even with other characters, I mostly enjoy the story and the cute interactions anyway. So.. this is my request for an option to skip H-scenes.

He's here! wuuut! Welcome back

Bit of a bug for season 3: I got a conversation with Nadya about her being pregnant even though she wasn't.

Lol, I had such an epic final run!

I did a playthrough trying to build only one full team of five. The final run ended up being one of each type, with 2 S-classes, 2 A-classes, and one runt B-class wildling. At the very end, as most of them were running out of life and mana, the healer died! Everyone else ran almost directly except for the B-class runt who was all "I will avenge you!" - while still just about out of life and mana.
I was all 'oh f*ck' in my mind, assuming I would have to build up a new wildling AGAIN, but before I knew it, she had cut down the demon! The runt was no runt, the runt was the MC! Tristram is saved!

.. I can't remember, lol. I think I found grinding out the obelisk more tedious and - considering how quickly you die once you start on the latter layers - annoying.

You'll want the generator and, preferably, the protective suit you can get from the quarry. The fourth layer is the last one. If you need time to think, press on "running" to pause.

2023 on discord as well. I suspect the last post might be the comment a few lines below this, from 2023-12-31, so just short of a year and a half.

Towerfall was hard! Finally got it, though it took 97 turns.

To me it feels as a rubiks cube in hexagonal 2d, in that I can't picture enough chains of movements to get closer to the goal beyond a certain point. I'm also about as frustrated.

Nice concept and well enough executed. 

Did riposte (currently newest island, #75) in 3 turns. I was playing aggressively for sure, but a bit stupidly so, was sure I was gonna lose that angle of attack. Nope, the ai just focused on everything else that was happening.

This is really, really good, but I think Leap of Faith and City of Broken Dreamers definitively gives it a run for its money.