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As many of you may have heard, floor 5 of the Admin Tower is set to be demolished following a tragic baking accident - our hearts go out to the simplebots lost in the blast. First responders burrowing through the rubble recovered a bulletin board, for some reason, and here today we gather to remember those most important office memos.

Recall how, on Veteran's Day of 2021, the holiday of romance culminated in multiple public declarations of love and affection:



And who could forget the rivalry with our Floor 6 neighbors?


I don't know what these are, but they are surely important artefacts:



Unfortunately, the World Assembly is neither fair nor balanced, and some dreams were never permitted to cross over the barrier into reality. We gather here to pour one (1) out for these fallen homies:


In the many years of this august assembly, there have been campaigns so remarkable, so inspiring, that they were preserved due to cultural significance. Please gaze upon them for a minimum of fifteen (15) seconds:



Finally, for the sake of posteriority, we have here the final bulletin from Floor 5 before the untimely swimming pool leak forced its closure.


Now, would anyone like to stand up and share their favourite Floor 5 memories, as we come together during this painful time?

I'd like to make sure the wording on 13(d) doesn't disallow people from running as councillor/smashmaster pairs. It wouldn't be a formal candidacy exactly, but I think the idea of telling people up front who your second is going to be is interesting and unproblematic.

You can make a thread. :P  I wonder if I should have just made a general reviews thread instead.

Do you think it's a failing of a "make your own choices" game when the choices don't necessarily align with the player's ideals? You mentioned being forced into helping a cop as an example of frustrating writing, and I think that speaks to an interesting aspect of these CYOA-influenced games where people tend to want to self-insert and view the choices as theirs rather than the character's. I'm not sure where I'd land on this, whether it's the intent of the writers for the player to identify with the decisions or not.

I like this.

I don't know if it's intentional but the February transitional period assumes the existence of a leap day, and the transitional periods vary between two and three days. Otherwise, I like this a lot. It's a good way to stir up activity.

[Recommended If You Like:]

There's a concept that comes up a lot in designing and analyzing video games: the gameplay loop. A gameplay loop is the broad, abstract set of actions the player is frequently performing throughout the game. In Halo, you could say the core loop is entering an area, locating enemies, killing them, and figuring out which way to go next. In Super Mario 64, it's entering a painting, selecting a star, and exploring until you figure out how to get it. Of course, each iteration of this loop might feel vastly different to the player. It's not a bad thing, nor is it a critique, but it's present. I recommend Action Button's review of The Last of Us for much deeper insight into the development of top down cyclical gameplay in a game that does its best to disguise it.

What's interesting is that some games don't even try to hide it, presenting a loop as a matter of fact. This shows up a lot in roguelikes, where the repetitive nature of beginning new runs is central, and it's perhaps most fully embraced by idle and clicker games where the only gameplay involves waiting for time to elapse. It's strange, right? Lots of titles emphasize plot and spectacle and emotion and variance in ways that make it feel like we're constantly experiencing something new, yet there's a certain comfort in the discovery of a routine.

It's that sense of routine that bridges SteamWorld Dig 2 to its predecessor and distinguishes it from other games in its genre. If you haven't played the first, the general premise is that you're a robot in a steampunk western town, digging down into the mine below the city to kill monsters and find resources you can sell on the surface. That right there is your loop: enter the mine, dig in an area you haven't finished digging in yet to find stuff, and return to town when your health runs low or your pockets get full so you can get cash and buy upgrades. But SteamWorld Dig 2 isn't a roguelike - indeed, the mine permanently retains almost all the changes you make to it rather than resetting or randomizing. Rather, it's a Metroidvania (AKA Igavania [AKA Castleroid]). This is where the game shows the most growth from its predecessor, with a fairly large, less linear world to explore and key items allowing access to new areas throughout, and it adds a new wrinkle to the loop: searching for secrets.

Qualitative analysis time: I like the repetition of SWD's game loop. Burrowing deeper and deeper through the mines, discovering new types of ores and enemies and key locations. It's comfortable. And it's also a little personal in the way you can decide how to approach your mining and get used to the tunnels you create. I would probably play a roguelike or pseudo-endless version of this game for longer than I should admit. But the way it combines with the new exploration elements is awkward at times. A big part of this is that you have several distinct mines now rather than just one. Each new mine you enter starts with the weak enemies and low value materials you'll have long since outgrown, and each mine also ends rather unceremoniously. The game's two overworld sections have very little meat or challenge. Because of this, there are portions of the journey where the routine becomes a bit of a chore as you studiously explore in the absence of any real tension, only surfacing because your torch keeps running out, and this is where the overt loopiness of the game flow starts to wear thin. Most Castleroids only draw you back the hub by offering you utility; SWD2 has limited inventory space, limited lantern fuel, and areas so cumbersome to navigate that you'd rather fast travel home and back out to another warp. In practice, I think any one of these would have been enough. With all three, you can only get so much done before that loop kicks in and interrupts your travels.

But the bigger issue from this world structure is the secret-gathering. Deeply hidden secret areas in Metroidvanias can be great; I love Symphony of the Night, and some of the rooms in that castle are pretty obscure. But most Metroidvanias present you with a largely static world to parse and navigate. SWD2 has a few consistent ways in which it telegraphs its secrets, but by asking you to make your own path through the mines it removes its own ability to guide you. As a result, a lot of hidden areas require you to dutifully dig to the edges of the map to check for false walls or breakable blocks, and in low-light areas it's even more difficult to spot. There is an unlockable ability to make these locations easier to spot, but it doesn't come until late in the game and doesn't show on your minimap, meaning you'll still have to scour every inch to see those sparkling blocks. (Or look up a user-made map, which I did for the last five or so secrets I missed.) I should stress, you don't need to do this to beat the game, but a neat postgame challenge is locked behind 100% completion. And the end result is that if you're going for completion without using external help, SWD2 asks for a lot of your time.

Well, a lot of time relative to the overall game length. Unlike some people, I found SWD2 disappointingly short. I beat the game with a fairly high completion percentage in about 10 hours, then spent another few hunting for secrets before using a map to find the remainder and maybe 60-90 minutes on the final secret. I've got 15 hours on file and a solid hour of that was me being AFK, so factor that however you like. The ending also felt a little underbaked, unfortunately. I won't go into details here but the conclusion was so abrupt and brisk that it slightly undercut my previous investment in the world and left me feeling like something was missing.

Let's talk positives, though. Despite my quibbles with the overall flow, the core gameplay loop is still really good for most of the duration. I haven't talked about the puzzles which appear in caves, but they're generally fun and not too tricky. The game's Metroid-style upgrades are satisfyingly powerful and significantly increase your mobility and options in a way I really liked. And the overall gamefeel is pretty nice, with only occasional hiccups in what are otherwise solid physics. On the story side, the writing is fine, if a tad predictable. But my favourite aspect was the cog system. Replacing the linear equipment purchases of SWD1, you unlock blueprints for upgrades to your various abilities. You can toggle these on and off from town, but each one requires a certain number of golden cogs to use, which you find by solving puzzles and discovering secrets. It's effectively the same as the badge system in Paper Mario, except you find badge points in the wild. You're actually given good reasons to change up your loadout for different locations and it encourages going out of your way to try and get extra cogs to kit yourself out. More games should explore this type of progression.

This is the part of the review where you're supposed to tell the audience if the game is worth it, but I don't think that's super useful for indie releases like this. This game regularly goes on sale for $5 or less. If you're reading this, you're probably curious enough to get your money's worth out of it. The real question is whether this game is worth your time, and I'd say... probably? If you liked digging around in the mine in the first game, you'll probably like doing more of that here. And if you're a big Metroidvania fan who's already played the big ones, this is a nice palate cleanser. For anyone new to that genre, there are several games I'd prioritize higher than this one unless the steampunk mining overtone really speaks to you, but SteamWorld Dig 2 is well-polished and more than playable enough to warrant a positive outlook, even if the parts don't come together how I'd like.

Recommended If You Like: SteamWorld Dig; the "Drindy Adventure" mode in Mr. Driller DrillLand; the idea of playing Spelunky but not its difficulty level

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CalRef-exclusive bonus feature: The main character, Dorothy, is often referred to as Dot. This grows the Dot Cinematic Universe by one.

I thought it'd be cool to have a place for people to post reviews of things. Games, books, movies, buildings, whatever. Post reviews, talk about reviews, talk about things being reviewed. We should do more talking about things. Please find below a review of a thing to kickstart the topic, followed by a long period of silence, followed by many more reviews of things.

It started, as it always did, at the library steps. Breath caught in Kethis' throat as their foot hit the first stair, and they were back - just for a moment, only ever for a moment, such a long moment - ten years younger, walking up these steps to a building that felt so much larger and smaller all at once, back before the technomantic installation; and then in reverse, walking out the doors for the last time for the thousandth time, warm rain slicking the steps and hastening their disbelieving retreat, trying to understand how and why and should they have-

The taste of blood jogged them from the thought, and they gingerly separated tongue and teeth as they found themselves in front of the door. At least nobody seemed to have noticed. Grabbing the handle, their thumb found the same old groove in the metal, the reassurance of familiarity getting them inside before a second thought could hit.

New hires at the desk again. Hard to be surprised, they thought, with the way this place is managed. At least it always made things easier.

"Hi, I'm looking-"

"You checking out?" The technomancer was blank-faced but his words seemed to sneer, to say without saying 'I know you're not.'

"Ah, no, I'm here to tal-"

"You want that desk." He pointed across the room without turning.

"Oh, sorry about that, thanks," trailed out before Kethis realized the man was already back to his machine.

Maybe not that much easier.

Let's try again. Hi, how can I help you?, the girl at the counter would say, and they'd explain, I'm here to see the librarian, could you tell me who's working today?, and she'd reply, Lynue is on today, but she's tied up with a meeting, and they'd say, Oh, thank y-

"A meeting?" That wasn't in the plan. "Do you, ah, know how long it'll be?"

A yawn. "Nooo, it just came up. You can wait around though, she shouldn't be too long."

Kethis gingerly took a seat at one of the long tables, trying not to draw any attention. It was a slow day, which meant the patrons were likely the chronic regulars - a glance towards a bookworm making a stack of biographies served as confirmation. Five, ten, eleven minutes must have passed with fingers softly drumming on the tome, until their nerves began to calm, and they wandered back into the shelves looking for some reading to kill the time.

After careful consideration, I think we'll leave this unnamed for now. I'll look for a second to send this to vote.

Once upon a star supernova, twenty six legendary cards descended from our tall card tower. Hooray!
Our newfound love Testlandia, wore splendid magenta fursuit, specifically commissioned to contain BEES! It buzzed through rainbow, over walls yonder, and into the sky. At midnight, Gerald Ford erupted from his volcanic lair, overflowing with meritorious service. Both chambers reloaded their legislative shotguns while removing glistering shirts, heated by lava undershirts. Ford devoured the 535 imperial guards, while copper prices skyrocketed, and legislation stalled.

Meanwhile, the legendary crocodile, Crocodile Irwin, initiated CPR for the legislature of New Hartoria. Mercifully, HS wrote textwalls of nonsense which follows:
"Spinning crickets mercifully inundate Equestria"

Obviously, this sucked. Mercifully, Andraste (Jesus Ronaldo) smote tobacco from a Tevinter corpse. Aromatic! It smelled. Unclear directions confounded the manufacturing executives, who decided there was no better fate than death. Opportunistically, they provided Andraste more timeshares filled 37% of the time by Tevinter, but why? For this, the ultimate price of three dollars and forty seven cents must be paid.

Dissenting

"Books? Geh." A thick arm swept the stack of tomes off the table and across the floor, pages catching against the stone as they slid. "What are they good for? Keep yer records, shure, but can storybooks do this?" Sal'ren bellowed the last word, swiping theatrically at the air before striking a pose. "Can they pace and simmer like a fleet of concordists performing a minuet, and then knock you back where you stand? Do they bring you together with yer fellow kin? I don't see the stages filling up for people reading-"

A cough. "So does this mean you're not interested? Because I've got things to do, and the shop on the other side said to come by..."

From further down the counter, Kethis interjects. "We'll take them. Don't mind him, he's an actor."

Like clockwork, the correction comes: "A performer!"

The shop was quiet for the transaction. As quiet as it ever got, anyway. The lack of conversation - or customers - revealed the soft din of their wares. A perpetual tuning fork hummed within one case, a lava lantern softly glooped from another. A rock emitted sparks and nobody could figure out why, so it sat as far away from the counter as possible. Bobbing water birds, imbued sheet music, animated animal heads you hang on your wall. Once you've spent a year there, it's all white noise punctuated by the *jangle* of the door.

"What did that fellow have, anyway?" It seemed Sal'ren was interested after all.

"Hard to say. The first volume is missing, author's name isn't local..." Kethis trailed off, leafing through pages and mumbling. Magecraft, machinery, artefacts, any appraisal was fun, but this was their element. Recognizing paper, inferring publication date. It's half the reason they worked in this place at all, ever since the library... well, that's all in the past. "...How much hair?" They shook their head, snapped the book closed. "Who knows? We need someone else for this one. I'm going to make some inquiries, close up when you're done?"

"On it. Say hi to-" *jangle* "...her for me."

Good call. Fifth.

Full support, so long as it doesn't impact our current Councillor of Operations.

Second, how would we manage the unendorsing in the case that the second didn't win the election but was still keen to keep their 1% badge or regional top 10 and soon-to-be site-wide top 1000 position?

I'm not sure there would need to be one, in particular. We have always operated on a strictly pro-endorsement motive. While some regions enforce an endorsement cap, the gap between Refugia's delegate and its second is entirely natural, which has only added to my belief that a UCR with a non-executive delegate never requires an endorsement cap.

But what happens if someone wins a delegate election and just doesn't get enough endorsements to actually be the delegate? Doesn't that create a situation where there's a dispute of legitimacy between the elected and acting delegates?

Referendum XVII: The Refugia Holiday Special

It is an era of growth. Having observed the continued erosion of our collective sanity by the sands of time, our heroes reflect on the fragile prosperity of REFUGIA. The region, once and always founded in early 2019, has exceeded even the most unhinged expectations, and the COUNCIL now holds the keys to the future in a democratized grip.

But no grip is absolute. Recognizing the instability of the future, efforts are redoubled to safeguard the region against the ENTROPY of the universe.

In the hills of JUNITAKI, an admin hatches a scheme to celebrate regional culture for year(s) to come...

RRS 17. The Region observes January 31st, the anniversary of the founding of the Region, as a region-wide holiday.

Authored by: Junitaki-cho
Seconded by: Tiralta

Sign here when u visit and take a cookie!!1 <3

This looks good. I remain optimistic about the NAGA.

Maybe something like Desperate to codify our long-held status of independent neutrality,

What does "except in the direct defence of the Region's allies" mean?