My friend's book The Properties of Light is available for pre-order.

ooh yeah! I think I saw it available on Amazon

or at least like, advertised by goodreads or something

now I'm not sure where I saw that

I swear it showed up in some notification or other I get and now I can't find it

XD

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica reddit.com/r/etherealfarm/comments/knfnvo/…

@Derpy Oh thanks, this systematises some of the things I was in the process of concluding (did figure out the berry outclassing and estimated upgrade counts, didn't notice watercross gets fully outclassed).

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I don't want to look mean, but so far I feel like the game has multiple "issues" that apparently the dev don't want to address.

Even the achievement system seems somehow mangled: it gives production prizes but some achievements requires active damaging of your plant placement.

@Derpy Probably.

As for achievements, those seem to partially perform the tasks that are handled by Challenges in other incrementals.

The [plantType]*10 and [plantType]*20 achievements give out +2% and +3% production prizes. There is no way a 20 placement makes sense in the game while you are limited to the small grid - it is just not optimal.

So, you would have to place 20, WAIT OUT THE GROWTH TIME, get the achievement, and then replant everything in optimal places.

And did I mention there is a [plantType]*30 anchievement too that you WON'T be able to get yet?

@Derpy Presumably waits until after multiple transcensions.

you could wait to minimize damage, but that also means that you WON'T get the bonus until... quite far in the future.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica yep, but the bonuses aren't as influential as they look, so you want to try to get them.

So far, enjoyment-wise, 5 hours > sharks > garden.

also.... apparently the fruits are random, so in a way, gatcha over incremental game?

@Derpy Seems like the randomness is a minor element compared to other modifiers.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica also... there is [mushroom]*20 achievement

destroy your field to get a +3% production, basically.

@Derpy Clearly one of those things you just do for the sake of the achievement before you transcend.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica that could be a strategy, but remember that you have to be able to afford the full cost AND wait the growth time (growth time especially seems kinda useless)

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica also, a little nitpick....

weren't you the one that said Evolve required too much micromanagement? :P

Are you really fine with how the weather abilities work in this garden game ??

@Derpy I found Evolve's micromanagement annoying. I find weather abilities one of the more boring bits of the Garden. Because they're normally just click-thoughtlessly-on-cooldown, except when there is something that makes the decision suboptimal but whether to delay the use depends on knowing whether you can come back to the game in optimal time.

And I just can't guarantee to know how long I'm busy.

oh, so you do find them annoying too.

Was wondering why you didn't mention that :P

@Derpy Maybe I'm not as rant-inclined as my earlier reputation over the decade?

I actually wondered about this. Whether our discussions of these things tend to be too biased in favour of only/mostly mentioning the negatives.

And it's not just us. I have an impression that many of the 'main topic' discussions here are often negative-focused.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica want the positives? has some graphics to look at. To be fair, sharks is better on that front too, but the pictures eat up too-much-space resulting in constant scrolling.

@Derpy For me the shark game was amusing by the lore.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica also, since you want the positive talks, I managed to grab Degrees of Separation for 3$ (80% discount). Could become negative if you then realize that the discount is over so now you would have to pay the full price if that seems interesting.

@Derpy I have no clue what that is. And amusingly, I'm now unsure if you're just making fun of me for the observation about negativity.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica no, I am glad I got that but the second part is true too.

It was a 80% discount that I discovered by chance and is already gone

I THOUGHT it was till the end on January. Was not.

@Derpy 'Similar to Cuphead and Portal 2'. Well that's an amusing pair of comparisons.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica faster:

I understand (kinda) Portal....

Cuphead... just why?

side-on platforming

@Derpy Coöp 2D game.

(May or may not also be the 'Dark Souls of platformers'.)

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I know the game, I meant I don't see similarities other than potential co-hop.

@Derpy Probably the wildest comparison I've seen Steam do is the claim that Ciconia When They Cry is similar to Sekiro and NieR:Automata.

But in that regards, then you could say Rayman Legends is still co-op

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Amazon suggestions: Because since you bought DORAEMON Story of Seasons , you must be interested in Subnautica

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica saw the nettle. Damages nearby not-mushrom plants.

could be interesting, if that wasn't a curveball thrown at you after you already invested a lot of resources into a layout incompatible with this.

I surrounded a few mushroms with flowers, now this would require surrounding a nettle with mushrooms.

in a way, I feel like I am now told that I got black and white reversed on a checkboard.

@Derpy I put one nettle on the slot which only has two adjacent squares. That still boosts the two mushrooms greatly.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica precisely what I meant. To do that, I have to swap "black" with "white" on the whole grid.

@Derpy Placing the nettle between the mushrooms is likely to still be OK.

choose one of the four corner, place the nettle there, but then the two sides must be mushrooms, and in turn the sides of the sides must be plants etc etc etc.

Might want to replace the rightmost clover with a mushroom too, or not.

worth it kinda.

The nettle turns a +370% to +65%

so the clover becomes useless there

..... first reset, field still same size.

@Derpy Field size costs 100 resin IIRC.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think I will drop the game when the first winter will hit.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think that the fruits are definitely luck based. First, got an apple with a 10% boost to berries. And the second is -6% to weather cooldown.

First one is better by far

@Derpy They do seem different or same with no clear reason, yeah.

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think you get a random one on lev 5 and 15 of the tree, with 15 only really worth it after more resets (won't try that now). Would be interesting to see if you can save-scum for those.

Save just before getting one and then reload.