#game journal

[wy416]

Weyland Yutani Expedition Record 27-B Planet: Guniibuu II Purpose: Search & Rescue of Missing MAST Xenobiology Team Report 1/3: Autopsy of recovered MAST Team and Marine escort confirms previously undiscovered 0.09 micron pathogen which in combination with the corrosive levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, degrades the performance of standard Level 4 scrubbers to allow passage at low volume. It consists of a single non-reproductive pollen spore, something we believe is used as a form of communication between native grasses - perhaps to communicate high water content. The corrosive nature of the spore in contact with the human body, which consists mostly of water, leads to dehydration, neurological disruption, and death.

Test results are sealed and referred back to P4C for further research. All affected biohazards disposed of.

Report 2/3: Now fully aware of the risks posed by the native plantlife, further survey teams were deployed across the region to map other uncategorized flora. Nineteen other species of interest were cataloged and samples taken, but none showing any particularly novel uses at this stage. Referred back to P4C for pharmacological studies. Surveys were largely uneventful save two incidents described in the next report.

Report 3/3A: Survey Teams encountered a downed ship being salvaged by what were at first thought to be Crimson Fleet pirates, but closer examination revealed participants to belong to some as yet unidentified faction carrying mostly cryogenic weapons. Survey teams avoided contact and returned to ship.

Report 3/3B: During preparation for ship departure, the captain of the UCSS Pioneer spotted an invasive terrormorph prowling in the treeline and as per our contract with United Colonies, organized a kill team in short order. The specimen was an immature, allowing to be killed with small arms fire quickly. The remains were then disposed of within UC protocols.

[theforgeofweeks]

Welcome

Hi, I'm @theforgeofweeks, this is a sideblog I run; @locallyramifiedprime is techinically my main, but I use it far far less.

I've always been interested the idea of keeping game journals. Ideally I would keep them physically but with a physical object, I would worry too much about messing it up in some way. I also find it difficult to keep up motivation for it long term, even if I want to do it. So I'm trying out doing it digitally. In that vein, most of what I post here will be something like a game journal for some of the games I am currently playing and feel able to make that sort of content for.

If you are interested in reading any of what I've written, I'll link the start of some of my projects below. I may eventually go in and add links between the posts so you can go through them in order, but for now that hasn't been done.

Subnautica: Starting 5 days before the crash on 4546B. Haven't counted exactly, but I think it's roughly 80 - 90 posts?

I am also a very beginner artist and have been teaching myself basics on pen and paper, but also trying my hand at digital art inspired by the games I am playing. I'll post some of these with other entries.

Some games I've enjoyed, in no particular order or claims about if I've finished them or will write about them, just for an idea of what I enjoy.

Hollow Knight/Silksong

Scarlet Hollow

Hades I/II

Transistor

Wildermyth

Slay the Spire I/II

Subnautica

Celeste

Sunless Sea/Skies

Factorio

Cultist Simulator/Book of Hours

Stardew Valley

Dredge

Lot's of other games I want to play, some of which I definitely will get around to eventually (Roadwarden, Citizen Sleeper, Disco Elysium, Blue Prince, ...) and some which are unfortunately not supported on Mac (Chants of Sennar, Outer Wilds, Subnautica II, Ori, Rain World, ...), so could be many years until I can play them : (

Always open to recommendations for other games!

[abomination-unto-nuggan]

Caranthir with wife join my Silmarillion save in Paralives.

Caranthir will be a programmer, at least for now, and his wife Cuiviéstelien (unnamed in canon and kind of OC-adjacent since we know next to nothing) is a painter. She is a Vanya in my Silmarillion headcanons closer to the book universe, though she is on bad terms with her parents, and Fëanor became an unlikely father figure to her. Also she's trans.

[theforgeofweeks]

Subnautica Journal Complete and What Comes Next

Thank you so much to everyone who followed along with my (and Ryley's) progress through Subnautica. I first picked Subnautica up 5.5 years ago and really enjoyed it, but ended up getting too busy to complete it and stopped before I got to the Lost River. This is the first non-academic writing project I've done besides some writing when I was much much younger and has also been an inspiration to get into art, both physical and digital, which I have always wanted to do. Posting this has greatly motivated me to see it through to completion, with your help. Overall, my only real complaints with the game are that I wish the PDA would synthesize an entry for each biome with it's actual name and some of the key features. And I feel like the end of the game goes too quickly. Everything went very fast after I made it to the Lost River. Also sometimes the optimization of the game was a problem even with my modern macbook, but such is life. The only bug that really annoyed me was losing my Prawn full of materials to clipping through the map. I would eventually like to play Subnautica Below Zero, but want to take a bit of a break from Subnautica for now.

Anyway, I'm going to take a break for a few weeks (hopefully no more than 2-3) before I start posting my next project. I've been doing some planning for it but haven't done much writing yet. I'll say more about it before I start, but for now I will say it is set in Fallen London and will probably be posted less frequently than the Subnautica journals.

[theforgeofweeks]

Ryley Robinson Farewell to 4546B

This is surreal. I’ve finally done it. I’ve built a rocket; I’ve cured myself. I’ve disabled the quarantine platform. Just one week ago I didn’t even think I would survive. And just two months ago I didn’t even know I was carrying a deadly infection.

I’ve been spending some time at Lifepod 5; contemplating how lucky I had to have been to end up in one of the few life pods still floating and end up in the shallows too. It was a rough start, but the PDA did a good job of keeping me alive early on. There’s only so much it can do on a planet like this though and with a bacteria like Kharaa. It’s been luck and in large part the Sea Emperor that got me this far.

I don’t really know where I go from here. I mean, obviously back to “civilization” for now. Someone has to tell their stories. To tell the galaxy about Bart and Ozzy and Captain Quinn and all the rest. And the Kharaa and the cure as well. I worry about what Alterra may do once they find out what is here. But they will clearly send a ship out here eventually. The Aurora already had a mission to find the Degasi. And with the Aurora and the Sunbeam downed as well, it’s only a matter of time until they send someone else out here to find out what happened. As funny as it would be to let Alterra spend all their money crashing into 4546B; it’s not fair to the people on those ships. I just wish I could do something to stop Alterra from coming back. The Precursors weren’t great for the Sea Emperor and the rest of the environment here; I suspect Alterra will be much worse.

Still; there’s no way I’m letting Alterra claim that I’m trillions in debt to them. It’s their fault I was here in the first place. If that’s how they want to treat me; I’ll just leave. Maybe I’ll come back here. Unfortunately, it’s time for me to go now. I probably won’t be able to use my PDA much while I’m on the Neptune. Or maybe I’ll be awake the whole time and have nothing to do but sit in contemplation and stare at the stars. I’ve never been great with predicting interstellar travel times — especially with these new ion drives, so I don’t really know how long I’ll be stuck on here. I suspect it will be long enough I’ll be desperate for real ground and water. Until then… well, there’s always the view.

[theforgeofweeks]

Ryley Robinson Day 82

Finally constructed the rocket boosters. Just took 3 full days to get 1 ion cube. All I need for the cockpit is some table coral. That takes me back to when I had just landed here. And of course I need the Cyclops module fabricator, which is on the Cyclops 1500m down. Luckily I have been remembering the gateway back to the containment facility. And I’m 90% sure I have both table coral and computer chips down there.

. . .

It wouldn’t be another day on 4546B if I wasn’t doing something idiotic and dangerous. I know I definitely put table coral and computer chips both on the Cyclops, but they weren’t there. So I had to go back to the shallows to grab some table coral and back to the Cyclops again. And I risk running into the Reaper near the Quarantine platform every time I make the trip to the Cyclops. I did see them, but luckily they didn’t get too close.

[theforgeofweeks]

Ryley Robinson Day 81

I am so so stupid. And I should be very very dead. First off all, I forgot there was a gateway from the Enforcement Platform to the Thermal Plant, which is where all the easy to get kyanite is. Second. One of those glowing leviathans destroyed my Seamoth the moment I got out so I had to swim all the way from 900m down to the Thermal Plant and just barely made it. And then of course remembered the gateway.

I’ve got my kyanite. I’m going home. I swear if I need any other stupid materials from down here I’m just going to use a half finished rocket instead. Unfortunately, I suspect Alterra won’t have programmed the launch platform to allow that.