2023 in Review

ThisLast year was full of ups and downs. One of the ups was retiring, possibly For Realz(TM). One of the downs was a serious one. Specifically, my mother became terminally ill and I spent a chunk of the fall caring for her during her passing. This affected me way more than I expected and I don't think the affecting is over yet. Nothing is coloring my worldview more. Hug your mother if you can, kids. Life is short; play hard.

Painting

It was another big year for painting as you can probably tell from the shot on the right. I pushed through some really sticky points in the last quarter of the year but still managed to exceed the fig-per-day for the year in addition to hitting all my other goals. You could argue that the "quality paint jobs" could have been more quality which is fair. I still haven't pulled out all the stops for a single fig yet but I've thought about it a lot. Someday. Maybe. And maybe someday my photography will improve, too. 

A couple more milestones rolled by in 2023, too. All my vintage figs are painted now and I've hit five years of painting. I'd meant to write a thing to commemorate it but I didn't get to it. Dunno how many 365+ painted years I'm going to have moving forward as it's awfully grindy, especially when working through large volumes of characters. Without one of the outstanding kickstarters fulfilling soon, I'm nearing the end of the reasonably easy batches and don't foresee purchasing anything army-like in the near future.

RPGs

I ran two campaigns most of thislast year like I been doing since 2019. Neither of them finished even though both could have. The bi-weekly in-person one will be the last game we play in this world/era and it ties up a five and a half season meta-campaign that started in 2020 but you'll have to wait for it to finish to see how it turned out. I'll probably do a larger write up when I can get my head around it.  

Video Games

Starcom Nexus: *** (2019)

I forgot I played this game thislast year since I played it mostly at the very end of 2022 home sick with covid. It was...interesting. The story itself isn't anything to write home about but it had its moments. The big thing the game has is a "construct your own ship" mechanic where you bolt different components on a frame and away you go. I thought this was pretty cool until I realized that basically the only thing that mattered was speed. If you had firepower too, great, but after a point it wasn't a strict necessity. It's worth checking out and done by a single indie dude IIRC. 

Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries: The Rise of Rasalhague: ***** (2023)

Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit: ***** (2023)

Pretty sure I said somewhere that I'm a sucker for anything Battletech and this year more or less proves it. At this point, Pirahna Games will pretty much get a tithe from me every time they release a new DLC. Rise of Rasalhague added some new mechanics which I liked, an unusually difficult mini-campaign, and some new mechs which are always good. In particular, they added a "these mercs roll here" spaces and randomly they will attack you or help you on your mission. There's a whole set of rewards for those. Fun. They also added a "these guys aren't strictly bad guys but might not be friendly" which I liked a lot, too. I don't think the second DLC added any mechanics but the mini-campaign was good and I ended up playing through the rest of the game anyway. Next DLC or Mechwarrior 6; I don't care. Take my money!

Fantasy Wars: ** (2007)

Fantasy Wars is not a great game but Steam tells me I spent not quite 24 hours with it. There are some serious design issues in it, particularly, some of the missions were overly-scripted and under-specified which led to many Throw the Controller Moments(TM). I also dislike games that have failure spirals. Example: if you squeak by losing most of your units, you're at a serious, serious disadvantage for the rest of the game since a) you won't have the cash to rebuild your army, and b) even if you have the cash, they won't be upgraded enough to see you through the later parts of the game which are brutal. The last mission in particular is a real mess but I gritted through it and despite all that, the game does have  a charm. I enjoyed it some but can't really recommend it. 

Shadowrun: Hong Kong: ****(2015)

NGL, I have a love/hate thing going on with Shadowrun Returns and despite what I said in my 2020 in Review post, I did wait...like three years. The writing is pretty good and I liked the characters a lot but at this point that's really table stakes. The system still sucks, tho, and they made decking not just worse but way worse to the point that I never wanted to do it. Sad news: you have to in some places. I would have liked to import my character from the previous versions of the game but neither the story nor the system really allow for it. I didn't play the follow-up mini-campaign and would have liked to, but I am dumb and played a modded version that supposedly fixed a bunch of bugs and would have to play through the game again. While I did like it, I don't know that I liked it that much. 

Ember: **** (2016)

I played this late in the year and honestly didn't have high expectations. I don't even remember when I bought it--almost certainly on a Steam sale at some point. Ember is a charming and solid RPG inspired by some of the Old Skool(TM) RPGs that I remember fondly. Is it a AAA offering? No, it is not, but it's a steal at the price and does a lot of work to not overstay its welcome. Steam tells me I completed it in about 15 hours but I didn't complete everything and haven't (and probably won't) playthrough for other endings. I would like to see a sequel, expansion, or another game from this studio on this engine someday, tho, and that's saying something. 

Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition: *** (2015)

In the waning days of thislast year I went rumaging through my list of Steam games to play and since I'd been on a RPG kick, I picked this one. I kickstarted it a decade (!) ago as a big fan of Larian's other games. As per usual, I started playing it way after it cam eout in late 2018 only to promptly get sidetracked by, er, probably Battletech? I'm far too lazy to go look it up. I started a brand new game and was immediately reminded of why it wasn't hard to put it down to begin with. The game is full of very vague puzzles which I hate and one-shot-kills which I also hate and later in the game they added "guys that can't be hurt at all" which I also also hate. If you're noticing a trend here, well, that's not coincidental. I don't have the patience I had when I was young and this game really tested my resolve. I get being Old-Skool(TM) but, jeez, the 80s called and they want their game design back. I liked most of the combats and some of the writing but there really was too much of it. They tried to throw a couple twists in there but IMO they didn't sell. Ultimately I suspect I'll remember this as a very grindy and painful game and I immediately uninstalled it when I'd finished mere minutes before typing this. I'm told the the sequel is better and I really hope that's the case. Will it be another three years before I get there? We'll just have to wait and see. 

2022 in Review

After a markedly lousy start, this decade is finally starting to look up! 2022 was still full of its own challenges, personal and otherwise, but it's easy to be optimistic given where we've been recently. What will 2023 entail? Dunno but I'm ready to find out!

Gaming

I didn't do a ton of video gaming most of the year until Dwarf Fortress released on Steam, though Super Auto Pets gets special mention even if I didn't spend a lot of time with it. I have mixed feelings about the Steam version of DF. On the one hand, some things are markedly improved for using the mouse and Toady has fixed a handful of really tedious and weird interfaces. On the other hand, the new mouse interface is just as obtuse and clunky as the old keyboard one and he moved around a bunch of the hotkeys without replacing some of them. Result? I spent way too long trying to figure out how to dig stairs down and to make track stops work...and make farm plots...and make beds. Also ran: losing the ability to queue things through hotkeys and having to use the mouse. Bad. Eventually the mod makers will catch up and I can go back to being able to, I dunno, do things effectively in a game I've spent untold hundreds of hours with already.

This year I finished two full-length RPG campaigns and ran a very amusing 3-shot sci-fi miniseries. For those of you who follow my escapades on facebook, I mention it pretty often: it's a gift to finish any campaign but in the last six-ish years I've had the luxury of finishing seven full length runs and two mini-series with two in progress right now. That's already got to be in the tiniest minority of all GMs. Better yet? We have cross-referenced jokes, cameos, and, er, references, even across genres. I don't ever recall hearing anyone ever doing that and certainly not regularly.

Gardening

My gardening efforts didn't go spectacularly this year. I transplanted tomatoes and peppers out too early this year and most of them died to a late cold spell. The late start and other weird weather kept yields fairly low. I had such grand plans for all the tomatoes I didn't get. Possibly this had something to do with soil quality, too, but I did amend heavily with compost this spring. I'll probably do more amending thisnext year so hopefully that'll help resolve. 

Painting

In addition to blowing past my painting goals for a third year in a row, I hit a the four digit mark of lifetime painted figs--a pretty cool milestone. Next thousand will be a few years out still. I also finished painting every figure I bought in 2016. I have my records in major groups either by year or by major kickstarter and a couple other random things like 3d prints. Couldn't tell you what the next group I might complete but for a few of those years I probably over-bought. I also completed 260 figs which is five per week--a far cry from the 380 or so I did in 2021 but IMO it's still pretty good. Note: there are a few missing from this shot (I gave them away at the end of campaigns) and the rows at the end are slightly out of order. I didn't think you'd mind.

I also put a lot of effort into raising the quality bar thislast year. While I don't think that the upper end of my range has moved much since 2021, I do think the average has moved quite a lot. NextThis year I want to do a bunch of side-by-sides of much older high quality paint jobs and really crank it up. I'm helped by the fact that I already have multiples or can print multiples of many of my favorites.

Fin

Ending these posts is always weird since it's recapping a year's worth of stuff. So I guess I'll saytype that I have high hopes for 2023 and I guess we'll just have to see how it all works out. 

2021 in Review

ThisLast year didn't go the way that I might have planned which is becoming a trend, it seems. I didn't expect to be working from home for another year among other things, and certainly didn't expect to paint quite so many minis. I still don't miss my terrible commute and am not looking forward to going back to the office. Anyway.

Gaming

Not much going on in video gaming this year though I have run two simultaneous RPGs for most of the year. Most of my campaigns of late have been going at around the 9-10 month range which is still a good long time so probably another two will end nextthis year. I've been revamping my sci-fi game so maybe we'll get back to that sometime soon. Also in RPGs, my in-person game has been fully painted for the first time and I totally see why people insist on playing fully painted now.

Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries ***** (2019)

I've saidtyped at least a few times here that Battletech is one of the few things that I have nostalgia for. Now that I'm thinking about it, a strange number of the things I have nostalgia for came from FASA who were big in the 90s. That probably isn't a coincidence. Anyway, I've played many of these over the years and this installment does not disappoint. For all the hours I put into it, ~120 hours sez Steam, blowing up mechs and walking through buildings never got old. I've now played through various campaigns most of three times and still fire it up occasionally whenever I need stompy mech on mech action. Will we see painted Battletech minis in 2022? Watch and see.

Dwarf Fortress ***** (2006)

I playrun Dwarf Fortress every few years to see what's changed and I'm pretty sure I've talked about that here before. I still hesitate to call it a game but it's still endlessly amusing and at the end of thislast year, I fired it up again to see what's changed. Answer: not as much as I'd expected but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. Probably I'll keep up this tradition as long as I'm able and if I haven't said this before: there are things that happen in Dwarf Fortress that will never be done in any other game.

Gardening

I'm bad about picking up new hobbies on a semi-regular basis. This year I picked up gardening for reasons I still don't entirely understand. It's been hard but interesting and sadly I didn't think to take any pictures. I learned two very important things: 1) dirt is expensive, 2) you don't have to plant every tomato seed in the pouch. I had more than 30 tomato plants many of which ended up at around 12 feet. I gave a pile of them away and the heat killed more than a few of them and I still had more than 30 plants. When they were in full swing I was easily getting two bowls of cherry tomatoes every day. I love tomatoes probably more than the next person, but that's a lot even for me. Luckily, nextthis year I'll be prepared with more varied recipes and possibly other growable incredients.

Painting

This year I broke another major milestone. I painted more than 370 figs which means on average I completed more than one per day. They certainly weren't all winners but either way that's a pretty serious accomplishment, especially since I don't play army games. I'm pretty sure this is a top N% kind of accomplishment, especially for a non-pro and non-commission painter, but don't really have a feel for what's normal in this space.

Pretty sure I noted it somewhere in one of those batches' writeups but I do find utility in doing them even if I might not particularly enjoy them. Previously I got pretty significant speed gains. This time around I'm only seeing minor speed gains, possibly because I've already exhausted the easy stuff, but I am seeing quality gains. I didn't snap pictures, but the Frostgrave Soldiers in week 51 are a significant upgrade from the first ten when you sit them side by side. That's a delta of, I dunno, 800 or so figs in about three years.

I'm also seeing a pretty significant increase in quality over the year. I've suspected this having completed so many figures, but it's pretty clear when you line them up. I've regarded Kyeh (the mage gal throwing the wave) as one of my top pieces but in the high quality lineup, she's clearly lackluster. Similarly, while I still think the chaos toad holding a fireball is good, it is nowhere near the two Artisan Guild prints in the front row with him. In both cases there are hundreds of figs between the two points with all the learnings that come with them.

The second milestone is perhaps less significant but not the less in stature. In the waning days in 2021, I finished a pot of miniature paint. I didn't think to take a picture of it so you'll just have to take my word for it, but it was one of my vintage pots of Reaper paints, Linen. I've used this color to do a lot of highlighting and a lot of drybrushing. In fact, the majority of the drybrushing I've done across a large swath of my painted figs was done with this pot so it's not all that surprising that it was the first to go. And, yes, I harvested the metal skull agitator.

Fin

So that was 2021 in a nutshell. I'd say on the whole it was better than 2020 but that's not a particularly high bar to clear, now is it? Will 2022 be better still? Gosh, I hope so. Let's find out!