Tarcion

Are these values inclusive of the 60 minute nonsense?

It is crazy that it has become this much of a problem and it feels like it is on almost no one's radar. Is this even reversible at this point? I assume not, but that it can definitely get worse.

Some people would have laughed you out of the room. A lot of people, myself included, warned that this was the kind of shit we'd spiral into with these microtransactions. It was basically confirmed within a year or two with the absolutely insane amount of money mobile gaming was seeing where the base product was just addictive crap with as many microtransactions shoveled in as possible. These games just completely blew the revenue of actual AAA titles would out of the water. It was basically inevitable and we're now in a situation where we've got a generation of consumers raised on this trash.

This was my thought as well. Pretty sure I already have all of that turned off but I would have done that as part of the install and brief customizing of the UI. Can't say I ever used a guide or anything, or even considered it unusual for modern software.

Ah, that likely explains it. I know when installing I hit "no" on anything that sounds remotely marketing related and I turned off search and weather because they just don't add any value and I like a clean screen. So I think the only ads I get are the small, unobtrusive ones on the lock screen, which I can't say I'm bothered by in the slightest. I barely even notice them since it isn't like I stare at the lock screen.

I'm so confused by the ads thing. I don't think I've noticed any since upgrading to Win 11. Are they only on certain editions or something?

I recently picked up Midnight Suns which, to be very clear is not FFT. However, I will say despite the kind of bad story and corny aspects of it, the actual turn based combat is excellent. I thought I would hate it being card-based but it really grew on me a lot. Definitely scratched the FFT itch.

Old games? Let me throw Final Fantasy Tactics in the mix. Easily my favorite game of all time and one of the only ones I consistently come back to, despite releasing in 1997.

If you're not familiar, FFT is a turn-based tactics game which is very different from other mainline FF games in a lot of ways. The story is one of the best, if not the best, in the FF series. For gameplay, you recruit and manage soldiers which progress using a fairly in-depth job system which is also pretty easy to pick up.

I'm sure you could find a PSX emulator of the original but, honestly, I really recommend the updated War of the Lions edition they did for the PSP. It's been ported to mobile and is actually a great port. My one tip for anyone who tries it is to make multiple save slots in case you find yourself overwhelmed in a story dungeon/encounter.

This would be my absolute dream. I loved BG3 but the weakest part of me was being based on D&D 5e. PF2 is just a better system in pretty much every way imo.

If they could make a PF2 CRPG, that would be incredible.

I think that's possible and can certainly be your head canon or what you run at your table.

That said, I believe the connections between the two are entirely due to the githyanki's enslavement by the illithids. Learning the wrong lessons from their oppressors is a sad, but not unbelievable, outcome. The note about aboleths is interesting but I'm not familiar enough with their lore to effectively speculate why they would not know about illithids - perhaps they just didn't come into contact with them until the height of the illithid empire.

This kind of lore stuff is why I stick to homebrew tbh

Wow, that is an excellent article. I've been wanting to try and host an In-person game for a bit but the whole "8 laptops" thing is a bit cumbersome. I think there is definitely a viable solution there to let people play from the couch and just hot seat with a laptop while the game is up on the TV.

I use foundry and love it. I've switched to PF2E but ran 5e on there for about 2 years. It works great for doing a lot of automation for you and you can still throw up a background image for TotM scenes. Definitely my favorite method I've tried for our virtual group. Though when we have In-person sessions we still use foundry with eneryone on laptops because it's so much easier.