Please use foodgrade coconut oil when inserting this update!

Other companies are fools for not almost directly copying the steamdecks control scheme, it should be a standard, that is what the deck is, a standard setter.

Can you send me some spare carrier pigeons? I’m fresh out.

Wait… so do you tape like spare carrier pigeons to another carrier pigeon and send that pigeon or do you just send carrier pigeons on a one way trip with nothing to carry? I don’t know how this technology works.

Do you really think I am going to be the guy to say ”No” to bringing back carrier pigeons? Come on, be reasonable, I can’t say no to texting people via literal pidgeons.

That is what I thought!

Yes what a shame, that kind of technology would be perfect so long as it wasn’t full of condescending cynical people who constantly shutdown any positive momentum for change that required vision.

Maybe we could have a network of quadcopter drones that delivered notes between people?

Aweome! Thank you that gives me a lot of great inspiration!

Do you understand that with a response like this the only thing you are accomplishing is making someone with the right idea and passion… less passionate about the thing?

I agree it is just silly and it really shows how far up their own ass a lot of high power business people are, they have no idea what the hell they are doing. The place to compete with steam is the slickness and polish of the software not the raw power of the hardware, that is the stupidest basket to put all your eggs in here as a steam deck competitor.

I think it speaks to a much bigger dysfunction in the video game hardware and software development world, people that get their dream job at a AAA game studio or hardware maker like ROG I think end up developing and testing with dream hardware setups and then totally lose sight of the importance of developing games and hardware that prioritizes accessibility in a cost sense but also in a usability sense.

I think these people pick up a steam deck, try to play Elden Ring at max settings, think “this is intolerably bad performance and graphics compared to my $3000 gaming rig, no one will play this” and don’t realize the kind of betrayal that represents to the rest of us who can’t afford much more than a steamdeck anyways, and have always gamed this way mainly focusing on indie games and extremely crunchy minimal graphics strategy games and playing a cool Battlefield 2 mod like Forgotten Hope 2 while we look at the latest battlefield and think “how much time could they have spent making that game good instead of making it graphically impressive for people that can afford $3000 gaming computer?”.

I use xbox x/s controllers with power a moga strike packs and I have had no issue connecting normally over bluetooth or the strike packs.

No next time you don’t condescendingly assume someone acting in a neurodivergent way is an AI/chatbot and you actually take the time to learn about humans who act in ways that confuse you.

That is how this goes.

I don’t need to change my behavior, sorry.

Honestly I don’t think I will ever be financially stable enough to drop ~1200 extra JUST for another computer monitor that is only compatible with 5% max of video games. I just have a lcd steamdeck, I can’t even afford a full gaming computer, asking if I have VR equipment is like asking a starving person if they have been taking any cooking classes at the expensive Italian restaurant nearby lately.

To be honest I don’t like the idea of video games being made ONLY for VR unless they are extremely focused on being a quirky unique VR experience as this whole “revolution” in video gaming feels like from the beginning it was meant to provide exclusivity like a status object not a gaming device.

Unlike other gaming revolutions that perhaps started with high end gaming requirements and then evolved into broader contexts and other games that worked on potato computers, from the beginning VR has felt like the point was to become part of an exclusive rich people club.

I will take VR seriously when VR heavy games developed by developers with access to multi-thousand dollar high end VR equipment actually begin to have a serious adult conversation about the barriers that requiring VR equipment creates for players (that they ignore hanging out play testing their game on a VR headset that costs more than my car), and the spirit of inclusivity that violates. Come up with a way for the rest of us to play, integrate gyroscope sensors for a 2d tablet, phone or steam deck screen so it can be rotated held out in front of you like a “window”into the VR world. If your solution longterm is “well maybe people without VR headsets just shouldn’t play my game” then I will not give you money, and I think your game design goals are misguided at a fundamental level whether I own a VR headset or not.

I know that isn’t the point and that people love VR because it is cool as fuck, but it is real hard for me not to get that vibe from VR I guess?

I did get the non-vr marineverse cup though, I honestly can’t tell if it is basically the same as VR regatta or an outdated version of the same engine, it is very hard to tell just from the steam listing and stuff lol. Which again… why??! I feel like they are just assuming if I want to have the real, current up to date experience I will have already purchased a VR headset.

My understanding I got was they are basically the same game at the heart of it, but that vr regatta has a bunch of VR stuff bolted on top of it, but if that turns out not to be the case I will definitely ask for a refund if the non-vr game is clearly being ignored in favor of development only for the VR game. I don’t think that is the case however, on the contrary a lot of people seem to mention the dev being really friendly and genuinely inspired to spread awareness about sailing.

You know the weirdest shit about fractals is that if the fractal is space filling (you repeated the pattern at all scales for infinity and end up filling a 2d area with lines somehow than that fractal exists between the integers definitions of dimensions). A 1d simple line fractal pattern can through the bullshit magic of math have a dimensionality of 1.65 or whatever, it is weird shit.

I am sure I got something wayyyy wrong about this lol, but whatever.

I feel like I did when I impulsively splurged on Motor Town because it clicked with me so well, which is a very confident feeling of no regrets. This game has already blown me away with the clarity of its gameplay vision.

I hope resource use can come a bitttt down on the deck but its fine it is an absolutely perfect handheld game in gameplay.

Oh damn I never knew that, see in games like that I never even bother to jump in a sailboat when I see one because I know chances are it is going to be lame and make me sad and the sailboat wasn’t put there as a drivable vehicle to make me happy but rather the programmers just made it so you could drive all the boats even if some of them were painfully boring and oversimplified to the point of being an utter waste of time and honestly kind of a middle finger to sailing. Like Saints Row style comedic games should just have the character go down into the cabin, come back up with a chainsaw, cut the mast down and then turn on the outboard to make it into a motor boat, that would be way less horrendous than programmers spending a bunch of time animating totally fake sails that just magically spin the wind direction every which way they go (it hurts my brain a little just trying to explain it from the standpoint of actually understanding the very barebones basics of sailing).

I have always had a bit of a grudge against Rockstar for not having their sailboats behave like sailboats in their games. They absolutely have the money and they have shown the aptitude to make mechanically superb focused games like the midnight club series or more specifically the table tennis game they made that is… just a damn fucking good table tennis game.

Rockstar could have made their sailboats behave like sailboats at least in GTA 5 and when people realized that was awesome they could have stupendously easily turned it into it’s own entire separate sailing game built on the GTA engine… from there small rowable sloops for inland waterways useful for running rum covertly to unexpected and unwatched places where cargo could be discretely offloaded would naturally slot PERFECTLY into a Red Dead Redemption 2 dlc focused on swamps and waterways….

…sigh

No excuses game developers, learn to sail, go play Pancake Sailor, I will not accept this level of extreme sailing ignorance going forward. Sailing is one of the dopest skills humans have ever mastered (and is certainly one sentient aliens on ocean planets all over the universe must have mastered as well, certainly before becoming a spacefaring race if that is even possible right?) and unlike space video games, the moment to moment skill of sailing a ship is fundamentally rich in sensory feedbacks and necessary minute control corrections.

Dredge looks pretty awesome. I have to say though, I get just as hot and bothered about the idea of a game like Ships At Sea/Fishing Barents Sea .

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1266540/Ships_At_Sea/?curator_clanid=40205009

I want both lol.

I will say Windbound looks like it kind of launched with some frustrating game bugs and confused players a bit, but it is at a crazy steep discount right now and looks like it is worth buying. It has real sailing mechanics as far as I can tell and involves the exploration and navigation aspect of sailing that I love.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1162130/Windbound/

Sail Forth also looks like another dime a dozen pirate ship games with ships that don’t act at all like a sailing ship but rather just look cool with animated sails and drive like a tank… but the sailing mechanics are actually apparently really deep and fun. They are arcadey, but the spirit is real sailing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1031460/Sail_Forth/

I was so fucking hyped when I realized Valheim actually has the fundamentals of real sailing in it, certainly I had already fallen in love with Valheim at that point, discovering the sailboats weren’t half-asssed just reaffirmed to me in that moment that the lifelong partner I had been looking for and never finding in Minecraft was here, waiting for me, with a beard and torch. This whole time it wasn’t me for being weird and always getting really disconnected from the core gameplay loop of Minecraft after the initial rush of revisiting the game after awhile ran off in the way others who liked the game as much as me didn’t seem to… and this whole time I wondered what was wrong with ME.

Valheim whispered into my ear “honey, you KNOW what you want and I am going to give it to you” and shattered that whole complex in an instant when that shitty raft popped into the water in front of me after I crafted it for the first time.

Hey sorry if that was a long reach

joke rimshot sound

Oh gosh if I wasn’t broke right now I would instabuy Sailwind lol, it looks exactly like what my heart has wanted from sailing games forever, but have always gotten arcadey, shallow action experiences that use the theming of pirate ships as a thin veneer to mechanics that have nothing to with sailing.

I don’t know when I will get Sailwind but when I do I will play the ever living shit out of it.

edit well I watched too many Sailwind videos because I was curious and then suddenly out of nowhere I smelled something weird and I realized I had in my excitement for imagining being able to stack cargo in my sailing ship like a kid in a sandbox playing with toys that I had already lit a $20 bill on fire with a lighter I had unconsciously pulled out of my pocket and at that point it would have been a waste not to buy Sailwind so shrugs no way I can win I guess, you got me corned again life.

Well, video games are a good distraction from being hungry at least!

yeah the free pancake game I linked is very very simple in scope,it isnt meant to be a main game or anything (marineverse cup is the nonvr “main” version I think).

The sailing model is good though and the simplicity is a perfect intro into sailing skills, which I think is the point. Think of it as a simple meditative idle game where you learn a very real skill.

I am interested in trying other companies sailing games like sailwind, sail forth (arcadey but apparently true sailing in spirit) and maybesome of the more expensive ones at somepoint idk.

I think I will get marineverse cup for $5 on sale but idk I havent played it yet and other sailing games look really good too (sailwind thoooo).

What I can say for sure is Pancake Sailor is perfect at what it is trying to be and it is a pleasure.

I would love to hear other’s recommendations on games with deep and nuanced true sailing mechanics, it is almost impossible to deduce from the outside with a game even if sailboats are everywhere in the theme. I also dont vibe with sailing for the intense racing vibes, more for the experience of wandering, that is what a sunfish always represented to me growing up, I could care less about zooming around a specific track, small pancake sailors are the mountainbikes of nearshore choppy but moderate inland coastal waters.