Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

I beat the game's sumo and programmer captain survival mode, primarily, by creating spinbots that traced paths like a spirograph. Sometimes, with lots and lots of copies of themselves to swarm the objective.

Other players building autonomous drones: I must think of every possible scenario this bot can run into and meticulously program for it.

Me: haha spinny robot go zooooooom

Several weeks ago, a baby orb weaver set up a tiny web behind my bathroom hot and cold tap, tethered under the mirror. I initially considered moving them, but let them stay and munch on local ants that also tried to move in over the summer.

They're now an adult, and have decided I'm not a threat beyond being mildly irritating when I use the tap. It's given me a chance to see their entire routine, including spinning ants, shedding, and rebuilding their web while I watch.

Useful thing I did not know: if you transfer from Pokemon Sword/Shield to Pokemon Home after June 2nd, you'll get all three Galar starters with their hidden abilities.

Since Cinderace's is incredibly overpowered, and wasn't obtainable elsewhere prior to this change, it's worth picking up.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-police-will-return-to-east-precinct-where-chop-has-reigned-durkan-says/

"Durkan said the city would attempt to phase down nighttime activity in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, known as CHOP — or earlier, as CHAZ — but would not be using police to clear the zone. Rather, Durkan said, they’d ask people to leave the area voluntarily at night"

Pretty easy to read the veiled threat in this one. Stay safe out there.

I guess, overall, it feels like they were given a very limited mandate, turned randomness and event frequency down to make it easier to put down for awhile, and will add and fix stuff later.

I hope they do, because there's a ton of stuff I want to play around with again.

The most bizarre thing is my villagers never want to play hide and seek, buried treasure, item trading quests, or to compete in ad-hoc fishing contests or bug-offs. Those apparently exist, but in the whole time I've only had them happen twice.

Are these uncommon in anyone else's game, or did they really tone down the frequency a lot?

One thing I'm hoping for is that they expand the island tours feature.

It existed in earlier games in the form of short minigames and a permanent mini island you could decorate, and those were neat. There's also a ton of potential for more interesting islands and to expand on Photopia (the Cyrus and Reese event has been cute, if a bit repetitive since it lasts all month). So hopefully those will pad things out a bit.

Also, villagers can do minigames, but it's rare now?

Which I think is a concession that this is a good Animal Crossing for busy people. Everything is streamlined and compact, points of interest and decisions are heavily telegraphed and deliberate, but there really isn't a whole lot going on yet.

I guess I dunno if I'll stick with it. I did full year cycles in Wild World and New Leaf, and grew pretty attached to my villagers. This feels like more of a cardboard cutout of the experience, but I still love them to bits. 💜

This is all to say, I think things get better from here, but the current release needs work I think.

I still enjoy it. I still love checking in with my villagers, building little sets for Cyrus and Reese, and overall decorating and making pretty things.

But the experience is much more staid, and it's really strange. Previous games had many more events, villagers would share more random slices of life, whereas everything here is purposeful and deliberate.

And it's _weird_.

Nintendo has promised a ton of DLC, and I'm kind of hoping they follow through. New Leaf: Welcome Amiibo added a ton of quality of life things (that are missing from New Horizons for some reason, like sitting on rocks), and it's conceivable we'll get such a "service pack" here.

The event calendar is bizarrely empty, and the rotating carousel of visitors isn't sustainable right now when many of the visitors had dedicated shops previously.

The UI, flatly, needs improvement.

So after a few months of daily play, I think I've arrived at an opinion of the new game. Like the sea bass, it's strictly a C+ compared to other games in the series, as things stand today.

New players have wondered if there's more to do in the game, and in previous games, there were. You could play NES games in the first AC, draw constellations in Wild World, visit the city in City Folk, and swim, brew coffee for villagers, and visit a nightclub in New Leaf. But not here, yet.