So, recently I watch a video by the brilliant LGR covering SimCity 3000 nearly 25 years later. It got me thinking about the game again seeing as I played the original SimCity 3000 and SimCity 2000 a lot when I was a whee bunny. I own a copy of SimCity 3000 Unlimited, which was its successor that came out a few years later with additional features and tilesets.
Upon watching LGR’s video of it, it was then brought to my attention that it was possible to bolster the screen resolution far higher than the original settings! Intrigued, I decided to spend an evening figuring out how to do it. After a few hours, a hex editor, No-CD Patch, and another compatibility patch to make it run smoothly, I got it to run just like I remember it! Rather than use the base SimCity 3000 that I was very familiar with, I decided to give the Unlimited version a go this time.
I think (I could be wrong) but they did some re-balancing between SimCity 3000 and the Unlimited version, so getting a city off the ground was much harder than I had anticipated it would be. After creating a coastal city area with a river near the middle, it took a number of false starts to finally figure out what I was doing wrong. It felt like a combination of building out too quickly and enabling way too many ordinances off the bat causing my budged to be overblown before the city was established.
However, once the city was established and becoming self-sufficient, all I started to do was small baby steps to get it to grow and then adjust the ordinances as the city asked me to do or I saw necessary. Ultimately I ended up… spending 3 hours not even realizing it working on this city. It has been an absolute blast revisiting this game after all of this time and at 1080p resolution no less!
I very much look forward to filling out the entire city available land eventually, and seeing what nifty new buildings I either come across or can add in as I get a bigger flourishing city.
One evening, while Laureine was assisting me with acquiring some crafting materials, she stumbled upon seeing the great Void Ark flying through the clouds below. She stood there for a moment with her beloved and trusty red panda to ponder the behemoth ship.
Why was it still out there, what does it continue to hide, who still resides within, will it ever return to the Thirteenth or is it just stranded on the Source only to aimlessly fly through the skies until the Twelve know when. Only time will tell if we ever do return to the Ark or if it is truly doomed to float in the skies above northern Eorzea for all of time if only to remind us all of the adventure we once had entering its eerie corridors all those moons ago…
This era was really quick thanks to a few exp bonus weekends back to back. The U.S.S. Astera III ended up being something that resembles a starship crossed between the Constellation and Stargazer classes.
The many views of the U.S.S. Astera III
I honestly didn’t like this ship all that much aside from the bridge officer positions. It did serve me well before I was high enough rank to reach the next class of starships though. Once the U.S.S. Astera III was christened and all fitted up with parts from the U.S.S. Astera II (consoles, weapons, and such that were meaningful to carry over), we were off to complete the Romulus Missions.
Flying through space at the speed of light~!
This is where I did the Coliseum Mission which was a lot of fun! The vast majority of it was a ground mission, but it was very enjoyable and did even have the song from Star Trek: ToS that Kirk and Spock fought to! It started out as a routine mission to try and find a mission Reman ship, only to stumble upon a space station (satellite?) that immediately zaps us upon scanning it!
HALP!
It doesn’t outright blow us up, but we have to investigate it to figure out why it was holding us. This part had no combat, but it was a ground section, and was a big puzzle. The puzzle itself wasn’t too hard, but it was really neat to have this little section and it did make me think about how to solve it. Aftrewards though, was the whole coliseum section after my transport back to the ship was intercepted by someone.
The Coliseum section was fun & fair for the most part, which ended up leading into the finale section. This section was also a ground mission about getting far enough away to call for help. It was some stealth, collecting items, and fighting, which all and all did take a bit of time to complete, but once it was done, I was back on my ship all safe and sound ready for more space adventuring!
Also a much needed breather with a new dress.
I headed back to Earth Spacedock as around this point, I was high enough rank for the next starship, and that’s when this started to get a smidgen more difficult… I took a breather, got a nice lovely dressy outfit together and checked out some more Earth Spacedock before heading out into the next series of Episodes.
Episode XIX! – Aikirees was inspired by this week’s report, so she decided to play a little while back and HQ. I decided to join her and relax to her pleasant harp playing. I never knew she was so talented in string instruments!
This is a smidgen late, since as of this post we’re fast approaching 85, but we hit the Level 80 milestone on Dragoon! It has certainly been a wild journey looking back on starting out as a little Level 1 Lancer all the while ago. This job has been really really fun and every ability that has been added later on just makes the flow all the more enjoyable!
Don’t get me wrong, even at lower levels with the lack of the combo-chains and procs that can be done, it’s still a really enjoyable job with a pretty good balance between speed and damage. I’m still really glad we all picked it as our first foray into melee, but not something we’d be maining anytime soon though.
Level 80!!
Getting so close to the finish line now, and looking forward to it! Soon thereafter, we’re all off to finally start and complete all of the Endwalker Role Quests!
The Cousins would like to wish everyone a very happy Valentione’s Day today! Y’all are loved and appreciated no matter what. Love who you are, and spread that to everyone around you! ❤
After finishing up all of the tasks for the week, I caught up with Aikirees in Labyrinthos near Margaret’s place on a rainy evening. We coincidentally finished our running around for the week in the same location and gave her some much needed cover from the rain.
While not much for small chatter, as we tend to a lot while adventuring as well as just being plain exhausted, I simply looked down at my dear little sister smiling. She looked back up and flashed a tired smile herself. I was only able to muster one thing before both of us returned to HQ for the evening.
~”I know the winds are changing, and we’re heading Westward soon to a new land. You’re growing up so fast and becoming so strong now. No matter what happens in the future, you’ll always be my Little One, dear sister. I shall always be there to protect and look after you.”~
With the Terran Gambit Missions all completed, I went back to where I was supposed to be in the story quests, which led me back to once again the Romulan Mystery Missions. By the point I’ve already done a handful, including mentioning being ambushed at a Romulan outpost in Star Bunny II: Episode 1.
Space, it’s so cool and gorgeous.
I’ll touch on this a smidgen right now, but a lot of the later missions were taken under the U.S.S. Astera III; for the most part the lot of these went rather uneventful and felt like it was building up a prologue to another part of the story later on. Some had neat space fights, while others had… well tolerable/fun ground missions for the most part. I recall ‘Cutting the Cord’ really frustrating me for the ground part. However, on the opposite side ‘Coliseum’ was so much fun even with it being a bit more challenging.
There were a couple of missions with some neat space sections, the first being one that I cannot recall the name for the ears of me has one flying around a planet with a polygonal grid system surrounding it, and unintentionally interacting with it is not a good time.
The welcoming committee afterwards.
The U.S.S. Astera II did have an untimely fate during this mission, but it was fun. Another of note had me encountering a planet with a neat hexagonal shield system. I think this was the ‘Taris’ Mission, but I might be mistaken.
Hexagonal Shield is Hexagonal.
From there, really just did some more missions/side missions and flew through another ten levels rather quickly. My little U.S.S. Astera II’s decommissioning day was looming at this point.
A couple more space shots with the U.S.S. Astera II because space is beautiful.
It didn’t feel so quick with my second starship, but it kind of was. The exploration and battles that I took her into were so memorable; she was a tough little ship and still one of my favorite class’ of Federation Starship to this very day. More space exploration awaits~!
After a long day of adventuring through all of Etheirys, and the First, the two cousins return to Headquarters on this cold wintry night. Laureine placing her technological Allagan Lance and bodysuit into her private chambers, meanwhile Lizicus placing her trusty bow that was a gift from Laureine and armor away in her (rather sparse) private chambers’ armories.
After a quick clean-up and having some hot tea with a little to eat, they both just relax in front of the lower level’s large stone fireplace. They’re normally seen either together or keep in touch as to where they are while running around the vast world, and even on occasion are seen sitting and chatting somewhere, but not like this. On this cold night, while the snow comes down in Ishgard, they are fully relaxed with not a single care in the world even if just for a moment.
Everything from their future endeavors in Tural, Laureine’s next big Allagan idea, Lizicus’ favorite type of drinks, and what the latest ‘rad’ thing she saw in Old Sharlayan the other day just to name a few. All sorts of other things along with that that just came to mind while resting there listening to the light jazzical music from the Orchestration and the crackling of the fire. Lizicus ultimately laying down on a floor pillow slowly dozing out as Laureine just looked at the fire smiling and enjoying the company of her sometimes stubborn cousin, their pets, and just letting time freeze in this tranquil moment.
While it may have been a cold winter’s night outside, it was an incredibly warm and cozy night inside. Stay warm everyone, and enjoy a wonderful fireplace with a hot drink on these cold wintry nights.
This is it! The final Terran Gambit Mission! This was an incredibly long mission with multiple parts and I think it took me almost 2 hours to complete, but it was so gosh darn fun! From what I recall since this was a long while ago, and I still prior to this mission wasn’t very good at documenting these things, is in the Mirror Universe the Emperor (who is Wesley Crusher) was able to get assistance from The Other which is V’Ger’s counterpart in our Main Universe.
The initial mission has us racing The Other through the Sol System as it’s on the way to intercept Earth. We help out the fleet and stop at the Jupiter Station to help the station evacuate while The Other ‘deletes’ it from existence, along with every other planet in the Sol System. Afterwards we head to Mars and do a similar objective, but get as many people off the surface as we can.
The Jupiter one went pretty effortlessly, but the Mars’ part was bonkers! A lot of space firefights going on while trying to transport folks off the surface. It took a few tries. After that, everyone falls back to Earth to defend it from the incoming super threat. Upon arriving at Earth none other than V’Ger arrives to help defend against The Other.
The large scale battle over Earth with V’Ger and The Other looming.
My little U.S.S. Astera II taking on a large I.S.S. fleet alongside the flagship herself, the U.S.S. Enterprise F was such a blast to do! After coming out victorious in the skirmish, we’re lead into the inner section of The Other to stop Emperor Crusher.
The U.S.S. Astera II ominously flying through The Other.
This section was so neat!! It was so similar to scenes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture! The detail was incredible! While flying through this enormous entity, there were a few more skirmishes with more Mirror Universe starships. Nothing really of difficult until the final section.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any images from this part, but if you’ve seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture, it’s that part where Kirk and the Away Team have to set out on foot to reach V’Ger. This part was fairly difficult, even with now understanding how to swap to shooter mode for the ground missions. I honestly think this part took the longest, but after almost dying a few times, we made it out on top and stopped the Emperor with the help of his mother and The Other stopped its attack on Earth.
Mission: Complete Success!
All factions and teams, Mirror Universe as well, stop at Earth Space Dock to debrief and everyone heads back to their respective realities. The Other puts everything back that it ‘deleted’ and heads back to the Mirror Universe with everyone else. This whole series of Missions were so fun, even if they got difficult, and the finale was SO AWESOME! I very much was squeaking and geeking out while doing it.
From there, I just decided to relax at Earth Space Dock until another day.
In comfy clothes no less
Learned how to wear comfier clothes instead of my Starfleet uniform while on ‘off duty,’ and took a long-earned rest until the next mission.
Episode XIV! – Aikirees and I took off to explore the ruins in Sunken Temple for this week’s Fashion Report. While I examined the ruins, I also dictated back to her what she needed to jot down. Spoilers, it ended up being half useful information while the other half were doodles of Carbuncles.
The other day, while Aikirees was hunting down the weekly elite mark, she stumbled upon a gorgeous sunset over Western La Noscea with Pharos Sirius nearly on the horizon. It’s been a very long while since either of us had a moment to just enjoy a sunset while adventuring, so this was a very lovely treat to behold.
Episode XIII! – For this week’s report, we took to the field and adventured into the Great Gubal Library to take some notes and thimble through as many books as we could muster. All well not trying to gain the attention of anything lurking in the dark corridors.
After completing the Hildibrand Manderville 6.55 story, Aikirees and I set out to finish up our relics… only to realize we were a smidgen behind on tomes to acquire enough of the material needed to complete them. After a number of roulettes on my part, and only a couple on her’s, we were finally able to complete our relic weapons for Endwalker!! Quite the exciting moment and they look pretty neat as well.
I very much doubt we’ll ever complete another relic in the game unless they return to being more quest-driven like this series was in the future as opposed to large zone-related tasks like Eureka and Bozja were, but it was a very fun thing to have said that I did at least once.
There’s usually two camps when it comes to Hildibrand Manderville and his adventures/investigations: one either loves them or completely dislikes them. Then there’s another camp within the one for loving them: either loving all of it unconditionally, or liking specific sections. I personally fall into the camp of loving all of it unconditionally.
The Hildibrand Manderville stories are a set of side-stories that are typically accessed after completing a major part of the Main Scenario Quest (MSQ) and are usually just absolutely hilariously bonkers. I very much understand not liking nor enjoying these style of stories, but it makes for a very nice complement to the (usually) far darker/sadder/heavier stories and adventures that the MSQ itself tends to throw at us. Anyone who has completed up to and including The Vault, everything that involves Patch 5.3, and even completing of Endwalker in Patch 6.0 will very much understand what I mean by these being a nice complement.
So here we are at the end of Endwalker with Patch 6.55 and the finale portion of Hildibrand Manderville’s Endwalker escapades, and it was hysterical! Kind of like how the MSQ for 6.55 was a smidgen on the shorter side, this was as well but with the bonus addition of a Trial fight.
Disclaimer, I kind of sort of recall what was going on last as the prior quest was 8 months ago now, and minor spoilers as this will be talking about Patch 6.55 Hildibrand’s questline including images.
I see what you did there!
It starts right where we left off still looking for our alien friend’s, Master PuPu, missing friend and spaceship. We discover a lead in the case and quickly head out to meet up with everyone and begin investigating. From a local fisherman, we find out who is truly behind it all, one of his old friends risen to becoming a wealthy merchant, Vanhudi. What comes about after this is hilariously absurdly bonkers! Doctor Lugae appears on a large battle body, some comical dialogue happens about blatantly saying he’s there to cause trouble at Yedlihmad. Before being able to act upon said trouble-causing, Godbert Manderville comes out of nowhere to instantly stop him.
ALL OF A SUDDEN, GODBERT!
It took me a moment to register what just happened and about that moment it did, several Doctor Lugae clones appear only to be comically thwarted by Julyan Manderville with a colossal frying pan. Meanwhile the original Doctor Lugae back onto his feat only to throw a spiky bomb towards Yedlihmad. Julyan tosses her frying pan over to me and hit the thing like a baseball!
The crowd goes wild!
Doctor Lugae throws yet another one, which I end up missing; only to have Hildibrand leap and catch it in time…
Nashu just causally walking away from the detonating bomb.
…only for it to explode in his face. Nashu casually walking away while everyone else ran was pretty hilarious. The Doctor decides to throw one more as a fast ball with me getting ready for the big throw. He throws the pitch and I send it careering back at him. It was great, even including a dramatic freeze-pose and all when I made contact with the mine itself.
Taking on Doctor Lugae’s Fastball & aftermath.
The crew cheer and we head off with all of the information we’ve gathered prior to this comical incident to confront the person behind it all, Vanhudi. We’re given a personal flight to his rather massive and fancy villa to be greeted by the man himself. After telling him we know all about his dasterly deeds, he asks me to join him to be cloned by PuPu’s Friend’s spaceship and take over the world. I decline such an insane offer (there is another dialog option agreeing to it, but I didn’t choose that one), and he goes about summoning a Primal to deal with me, Asura.
I got this!
Everyone retreats from the battlefield and the Trial is unlocked! The fight with Asura is really fun; not overly complicated (except one mechanic that kind of can be), but very enjoyable none the less. After Asura is taken out, PuPu’s friend recovers their ship, joins the fray to thwart Vanhudi from escaping. The two aliens are reunited and everyone retreats back to Radz-at-Han to finish up and conclude the story. One thing of note is during the climatic final bout betwee PuPu’s friend and Vanhudi, PuPu’s friend’s ship becomes unstable and before exploding Brandihild (Hildibrand’s ‘flawed’ clone) comes to the rescue and gets the ship far away. Presumed gone after the explosion, but once the credits role on concluding the story, come to find out that Brandihild survived the explosion! I let out one hoobers of a cheer upon seeing him alright.
This was so gosh darn fun and such a hoot as always. The whole baseball reenactment scene was the main highlight for me in this part of the story. Loved the Trial lots too and look forward to it coming up in Trial Roulettes down the road once a certain Dragoon level reaches said point.
Hildibrand flies away on PuPu’s UFO into the unknown at the end, so we’ll see you next time in Tural, inspector~!
