Ryan Thomas

January 7th, 2020.

Playing the demo on Steam now, having a lot of fun. I think I might get it for my Xbox, though. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3400000/Cubic_Odyssey/

I love The Backrooms; thought I'd try my hands at building something similar: and realized that there might be more to a competent maze than I thought. Granted, I hop out of creative a lot, to explore and whatnot, but still.. . I have a good four or five hours invested in this world, and this is barely a starting zone. It's like ten seconds of maze; this is gunna be a bigger project than I thought. It's gunna be a LONG time until I feel comfortable putting the roof on.

I'm not sure why I have a duplicate picture at the end there, evidently my computer thought you needed to see that house a second time. OR, it thought that the house I built sucks so badly that it had to finish the post with a better home

It does look like a highway. I'm not sure if it'd be wide enough; each lane is only three blocks wide. That's supposed to be the point; it's supposed to be reminiscent of a highway, but not wide enough for people to actually drive on. For the last several years, I've been really reticent about sharing anything with any online community. I mean, it feels like everywhere is like a landmine, regardless of how mindful and respectful one tries to be. However, I've been here since like January of 2020; this place seems fairly chill. So, if you're in the mood for a little reading, I'll share the story I made for the Homo sapiens world that the little highway pictured up above belongs to. One day, while the rest of the family is eating pizza and soda, I'm presented with salad and a skinless chicken breast. As I raise an eyebrow to the wife, she's all like "blah blah, you're not 22 in the military anymore, you're 45 blah blah we need to eat better blah blah blood pressure's a little high blah blah." Hey, I get it. However, I don't exactly ask "how high" when told to jump; I've always had an independent, rebellious streak. When you have a rebel soul, military life wasn't always easy. It wasn't exactly my first choice, but it was kind of a little middle finger to my parents, but that's a whole other story. Anyway, wife wanted me to eat better. I complied, but with a few grumbles. After all, I don't just roll over like a puppy; that's too easy. That night, we go to bed, and I don't wake up. I open my eyes, and see nothing but white. The night before, my wife was like "would it kill you to eat the chicken blah blah". Evidently, it did; I make a mental note to give her a hard time when we're together again. If I had to call myself something, it would probably be "agnostic" or "Nondenominational", but I was raised Roman Catholic. So, you know, if there's something to see, I'd half expect like St. Peter with a long scroll, standing in front of gates made out of light and clouds and stuff. I do eventually see something, but it sure isn't St. Pete, it's Codi Vore, and instead of a gate, there's three doors, one marked "+1", one marked "+1/2", and one marked "-1". Ok, I get it, I watched The Good Place, I get the "afterlife not exactly what you were raised on" deal. But I do have some questions. In movies and shows, beings assume the likeness of someone the viewer is familiar/comfortable with. I get it, but that always seemed a little lazy to me. But why Codi Vore? That's someone whom I'm neither comfortable nor familiar with. The only thing I know about Codi Vore is that I caught my daughter watching a few of her videos. It made me slightly uncomfortable, I closed the door, and never really addressed it. When my daughter was born, the question of "how do I address it if I find her watching adult videos" didn't really enter my head, ya know? I never addressed it; I was planning on slowly pacing around the living room, cloud of vape trailing behind me, contemplating if it's something I even really need to address. My parents caught me, when I was my daughter's age, and the whole thing was cringe and I couldn't even meet their gaze for a week or two afterwards. When we're alive, we think there's always gunna be enough time. So, seeing her made me a little uncomfortable. But perhaps that's the point. Or, maybe the point has nothing to do with me. Maybe it's egocentric to consider a being changing her visage just because of me. Maybe the being likes looking like Codi Vore. Or perhaps the being was indeed Codi Vore. You know, this story was fun to write, but I'm boring even myself reproducing it. It's also really long; I've worked on it for over a year. So, here's the main gist: Because of my volunteer work with places like Habitat For Humanity and Houses For Heroes, I'm asked to build a whole world, in the "+1/2" realm. That's fine, but just because I'm an carpenter doesn't mean that I'm an architect, ya know? I'm popped into a pre-existing world, and I don't quite get what I'm to do: wilderness stretches as far as the eye can see. Am I to build like homes or something? A town? I can't do any of that. Codi tells me that construction isn't the same as on Earth; here, you line up a few rows of rocks and twigs and junk and poof: instant fence. But there's bigger questions, like "What the heck is +1, +1/2, and -1?"; isn't that subjective? My +1 is going to be far different than someone else's. She says that this is the whole point; I am to build MY "+1/2". So, my +1/2 is a vacation that sucks a little. I see a single row of beachfront homes, kinda like this: Only they're spaced out more; I don't like living right on top of other people. I'm a good ole American country boy; I'm used to wide open spaces. I've seen pictures of like England; I mean absolutely zero disrespect, but I don't know how you good folks do it; you're like elbow to elbow w people. I'd go nuts. My homes look like this: I love this style of housing. However, it's supposed to partly suck. So: these homes aren't furnished at all. A bed, couch, and maybe carpeting when I'm in a good mood. You'd expect a home like this to have a big ole tv, microwave, etc. A home as such ( at least the ones I've been in) have been smart homes. Lighting, appliances, garage door, all that: smart. Not MY homes Bed, couch, carpet, and firepit. Oh, every home does have a pool, but it's not as fun as it might sound. In my world, you use the pool to clean yourself. As you know, we don't urinate and defecate in the game. But in my world, instead of #1 and #2, you exude a thick, stanky residue. You're not allowed to wash it off in the ocean; you have to use your pool to do it. All pools are outside, but being that no one has naughty bits anymore, one doesn't have to be as modest about being nekkid anymore. Another feature I'm working on is a boardwalk, like the one in Barefoot Landing, Myrtle Beach: Here's my boardwalk so far. All I have at the moment is one restaurant, called Bernie's Beef Bucket. After all, it's supposed to be part vacation, and every beach area I've ever vacationed at has some type of tourist-type area with restaurants, shops, and entertainment. However, this is supposed to also suck. So, the sucky parts are things like you can't just go to Bernie's and get like the burger basket with fries and a soda. Naw, you have to make your own bowl at the workshop; All of the game's workstations are here, can't be burning my boardwalk down Which my kids say looks very "noobish", but that's kind of the point. The workshop has no flair and is a little depressing. That's the whole point of Sandhoffish resort: part vacation, part suck. Oh, the name, Sandhoffish, is because of a town I was stationed by in Washington, called Snohomish. One of my kids said "what's the sucky part? I have sand, surf, raw nature behind the homes to wander in. Animals are all over, you have gardens; so I can make my own meals at Bernie's. The boardwalk doesn't have like sunglass huts and t shirt shops, but I don't like that tourist crap! I don't need a smart home to play Xbox at; I have a bed in a fancy home; it's all I need!" That's the point of Sandhoffish: psychological. I know plenty of people who'd love to spend eternity there, and I know plenty of people who'd be in abject misery. What if you were the only person who hated it while everyone else was having a blast? Or vice versa; what if you were the only person cracking a smile while everyone else was yelling "dude, this SUCKS!" This is also a bit of a punishment for the "me" in the game. Unlike the tv show, there is no "Janet"; he's got to do all that stuff for himself. Every board in the boardwalk was cut down from oak, every block of sand was created with the help of a mod called "Stone Quarry". The only thing I give myself in creative is the ancient stone blocks, but I only allow myself 64 of those a day, so homes like this: are taking FOREVER. But, that's the point: Sandhoffish is supposed to be part punishment, not just for the residents, but also the me in the story. I hope this post doesn't suck so bad that it was a punishment for you folks, too

What I use for paths isn't very fancy, but it works for my beach town: Stone paths, granite blocks that I chisel for a sidewalk, and I jump into creative to snag the ancient blocks for a meridian. My wife says I'm nuts; walking paths don't have sidewalks and meridians. But my little vacation town here does. The path is for those who have an actual destination in mind, the sidewalk is for those out for a stroll, and the meridian is because I don't like how some groups of folks irl take up a whole walking path, like they're a pack of teenage girls at the mall or something.

What is "wifu"?

I don't know if the rules of the game'll change, but at least as of right now, if you want to save yourself a little heartbreak, I always put a little moat around those things. Charcoal pit: Pit kiln (please ignore the house, it's nowhere near finished):

Ahh, thank you. I knew i wasn't losing it. Close, but not there quite yet.

As much as I love the game, I freaking hate that sound. Wasn't there an option to turn off voices at some point? I could have sworn....like 1.18, somewhere around there. Maybe I'm mistaken

As far as roleplay, all I can do is speak for myself. I've never done MP, but I roleplay a tiny bit in my SP games. I personally don't like the concept of the Seraphs; I like to play as an explorer, sent to colonize what the government suspected was a peaceful planet. Once I discover that the planet has a little mystery to solve, sometimes I go to the archive, sometimes I don't and just build and farm and bop around the surface. Some things are easy to roleplay; the crafting grid is like some type of 3d printer or replicator or something. Some things I can't explain, like why I no longer need the bathroom (or bog, loo, water closet, terlet, or whatever people call them from wherever they're from). I can't explain why I suddenly sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown. From my perspective, I don't necessarily want to be a mayor/elder, setting up laws and zoning, but I think it'd be cool to have like a housemate or even a spouse and kids at some point. At the same time, maybe being solo in the game w/o a spouse and kids and stuff is a dream vacation. In the game, I'll never have to hear "Ryan! For Pete's sake, you've had that Alice in Chains shirt since '96, either retire it or give it to one of the kids!" Or "Ryan, for Pete's sake! In our vows, do you remember hearing me say 'ya know, after a decade or two, it's totally acceptable for your underwear to be your only wear', or 'ya know, you're right, clothes Are for when company's over'?" I never have to hear "I'm not eating this! I'm not eating anything with a face!" I respect that, but how the hell was I supposed to know, when my daughter scarfed down a whole basket of popcorn shrimp last night? "Popcorn shrimp" isn't a type of popcorn! Shrimp have faces, she should know that, we have a thirty gallon tank with a ton of cherry shrimp swimming all over the place. So, while I don't need a sex update, I think having a spouse and offspring might kinda be fun, as long as I don't hear "Where do you think you're going? You can hunt later, right now the microwave's making a 'ker thwap, ting ting, ker thwaaaaap!' sound." I'm not an electrician! We do have an owners manual, and I'm not the only one who knows how to read. Yup, right here: "If microwave makes a 'ker thwap, ting ting, ker thwaaaaap' sound, there are several simple steps that you can take to fix it. 1) Unplug microwave. 2) Make a vulgar hand gesture to the microwave. 3) Throw microwave in the electronics recycling bin 4) Depending on your experience with the microwave, you can either say "so long, microwave, thank you for your years of reliable service" or "see you in hell, jank fart blossom". 5) Drive to appliance store and buy new microwave." Yup, I could totally write owners manuals

Haven't even started chapter one yet this round; having far too much fun building, farming, hunting chiseling. I'll get there, I just want to finish this little villa while i still have the image in my head.

I have one, not exactly a knee-slapper, but i think it's kinda cute. I like to build modern contemporary towns. A male and female goat spawned in my agriculturalist's home: So, I put a food trough in there, now the goats own the home: So, now I guess I have an anthropomorphic town, like Animal Farm, except with a happier ending. Poor Boxer

My guess is a spawn point is nearby. I have chickens spawning in my pigpens, rabbits spawning in my gardens; I like to think of it as gifts from the gods.

Ahh, you're right. I've only used tools from mods for a long time; switched to vanilla ones, sound and animation indeed aren't in synch.

I haven't experienced any of that. Perhaps we have some type of mod or something that would fix that for you; that sounds like it would be annoying!

Thank you for the replies. I think I'm just going to stick to standard mode. I finally built a whole city in Homo sapien mode. It was a lot of fun to build, especially my restaurants. I have a few from tv shows, like Ugly Nick's Meat Trench, and my own, like Hot Carl's Spicy Chili and I Swear to Salsa (a Mexican restaurant). I have sunglasses kiosks and t shirt huts, Quonset Hut, public pools, a meditation park, a casino; I mean, I just totally went all-out. And when it was all said and done, while it was fun to build, ..... it's just bland without NPCs. A town sucks without citizens and merchants. The college campus sucks without students and professors. CVS sucks without people to run the pharmacy. I think I'm going to just stick to sporadically placed homes in Standard, and keep the city life to games like Cyberpunk.

I don't have any predictions, but I have a few hopes. I love the monsters and portals and temporal storms, but I hate the zones of temporal instability. It's kind of a bite in the butt when you find this glorious little chunk of land for a home or town, and you gleefully start building just to find your green gear spinning out of control. So, I'm hoping that someday we can plop down some type of gizmo or something that makes like a bubble of temporal stability. A person might say "...blah blah such n such mod blah blah...", and while we have some awesome mod-makers out there, I try to use as few mods as possible, hence my hope to be able to put some sort of gizmo down. A person might also say "Build a town? In standard mode? Why don't you just freaking play in Homo sapien mode? Good God, man!" I do play in that mode, thank you. The thing with that mode, though.....I miss the monsters. I love frantically running my happy ass through my streets at sunset. So, I'm hoping to have a way someday to permanently neutralize temporal instability. I don't know about the new version, as I'm waiting for the few mods I do play with to update, but in 1.19, I was unable to get monsters and portals to work; I'm not sure it can work without temporal instability, too. So, I'm hoping for a way to neutralize temporal instability beyond using temporal gears as a quick, temporary fix.

Works just fine in pre.4