it's been really hot here, but I've gotten into watering all of the outside plants every day (I water my aloe and haworthia once a week) and they seem to be doing pretty well! even the tropical hibiscus, somehow.

I'm especially happy about my lavender and the roses, I've mentioned previously I think that roses are special to me because of my grandmother (my grandfather would grow them in the backyard in these huge rose bushes for her and bring them in) and these are the first ones to ever grow and thrive. they're not purely red roses, but I do really like the pattern on them.

uploading images keeps erroring out and I'm not sure how to put an image in here from imgur, so here's a link to the picture of the lavender and roses instead.

I feel you. I dislike most of the pyro characters honestly! and also, oof, Thoma requires ascension materials from a special huge questline island in Inazuma. he's kind of a pain to level. the pyro four star I like the most is a tie between Gaming and Yanfei. Yoimiya is my favorite 5 star one, and she works well with Thoma, actually.

you can probably guess who some of my favorites are based on profile pic and banner (eventually, anyway, they're both in Inazuma.)

who do you have your eyes on that you want, anyone besides Diluc and Shenhe? I don't know what the banners are currently.

yep! here it is on the steam workshop and I hope it helps you out! if you want the video series too, I can shoot that your way, it doesn't really spoil anything and I didn't know 95% of the mechanics even existed.

live and drink friend!

genshin is surprisingly good (I was also wow'd when I started playing), but ultimately I found the story lacking in a lot of key places for me (justice for Inazuma's story especially!) which ultimately led me to quit for now. I played for two years, and have a pretty well established account. however, I have really bad fatigue issues and wasn't able to keep up as well with the adventuring requirements, such as having to unlock chests for free primogems.

I think playing it until you're tired of the grating parts is a totally valid way to experience it. especially because it's free!

like the other comment, I tried Honkai: Star Rail and honestly I love it so much more. it is turn-based combat, but I feel like the writing is better, and they treat their characters better storywise (in contrast to genshin, which imho the hangouts for four stars are not comparable to the story quests some four stars get.) it's my gacha game of choice, and while I've had my nitpicks, I have those with every game I play pretty much. I also agree it's more f2p friendly.

these are all just my opinion tho! I hope you enjoy your time with the game and that you get the characters you want. may your pulls be blessed!

I'm absolutely going to do my best to understand and not copy/paste without doing that. I don't like doing things to my computer that I don't know what is happening, so that makes sense to me! I already ran into that issue plenty of times with my servers, so I'm trying to go all in now.

thank you!

thank you for the resources! I think I have VeronicaExplains noted down already, but the other ones are new to me. I'll give them a look!

thank you for this!

I too have brain fog and memory issues in general. I'm glad to hear that systems seem simple to understand but have the high ceiling, I love that kind of thing. I just need to push on I think and try LE again, when I get my desktop back.

what is your class of choice in LE?

story is usually an important part for me! it's one part of PoE that never impressed me. I might still check out Diablo 4, and I'm glad you laid out a lot of things for me. most of the stuff I could find online was still harping on previous issues that I now know some have been addressed.

funnily enough, I used to love running "lab" (I believe it's short for "labyrinth" but my memory is shot and it's been a long time) in Path of Exile, which was running through traps to rush to a boss. they nerfed that route shortly before I quit, too. but you got a lot of rewards at the end that had the potential to be good, and a blessing on existing equipment that you picked. a shame that boss farming in Diablo 4 isn't as fun, but it's something I'll keep in mind when a sale rolls around.

sorting was probably one of the things I disliked the most in PoE, I could never grasp what was worth using or selling that well. goes hand-in-hand with my inability to roll with theorycrafting builds, so to hear Diablo 4 eases that some is nice.

this looks amazing, thank you!

hey, sorry this is coming late! thank you for this. I was already looking at their documentation (I have a few times, as well as read their discourse forum) and joined their discord in preparation.

I think this is a super good tip because I have been trying to parse what all I'd need to get familiar with before I touch anything install wise. I knew about the pinning a deployment thing, but I didn't fully understand how, so thank you for laying it out for me!

ayyy new thread new game!

well kind of. I'm actually playing Caves of Qud a bit, now that I understand it more (I did end up installing the tutorial mod, thank you for that! and I did watch a small non-spoilery tutorial series as well) and I'm having a really good time. I started out with a character the tutorial recommended and have been fighting fish to level up. planning on taking on the first big quest tho!

sadly I'm stuck on an old gaming laptop that doesn't really like to play games, so I can't jump into all the games I want to. even my gacha game I play is pushing it, although I still login every day and do my required stuff. the laptop just gets extraordinarily hot. it handles Caves of Qud, because ascii, but I was wanting to jump in to Elden Ring at some point (I don't have the DLC, does it make new runs more exciting at the beginning or is it a later thing?) and realized it's not an option I think due to my laptop's specs and general grumpiness.

so I've been wrestling with Borderlands 3 to get it to work, and my partner and I have been playing that for a bit. I love the BL series, although 2 was imho the best for writing. the humor still annoys me sometimes but I started playing the series with the first one when it came out, as a kid, so it has a special place in my heart. my partner hasn't really ever played first person shooter games, so Destiny 2 (when we played) and Borderlands was their introduction.

unfortunately I am in it for the grinding, progression and crafting a build (usually something off the wall when I get confident.)

that said, I do love Hades! I've been wanting to get the second one despite it being in early access so hopefully that'll be in my library soon.

I don't think I was very good at the start at making my own builds in PoE, I think the tectonic slam build magically functioned somehow despite that, hahaha. I do miss the game, I played for a really long time. but it's not for me anymore.

I'm glad to hear that Last Epoch is still going strong with new stuff. I backed in on Kickstarter long ago because I wanted more PoE-like games, so I'm glad it's succeeding. I'm hoping that giving it another go will make it stick, because it being the "in-between" sounds like it'll be just right.

welcome to beehaw!!

thank you for letting me know. reddit was my first exposure to linux communities and I did get that vibe. but people have been nice here (even when I was talking about my "baby's first self hosting" experiences) and I appreciate that the community is usually good about answering questions. as soon as my desktop is back and functioning, I'm going to be installing a dual boot with linux and windows 10.

what kind of plants are you working with? I have a couple of my own, and I've found the planting and gardening community here very friendly too. I currently have lavender (most recent addition), aloe and haworthia.

for video games, I assume? correct me if I'm wrong! if so, I really enjoy seeing people do off the wall stuff myself, even if I'm not terribly good at it anymore. I've been delving into Caves of Qud recently and seeing videos of people doing different builds is really cool.

thank you so much!

I really appreciate the admins for making such a good space. and for you saying that, I really enjoy being here. I'll be making some new threads soon!

mine is actually something I learned about in therapy. wet a washcloth with cold water, then put ice cubes in it. there are various places you can put it to cool down (inner part of your elbow, neck, lower back, etc.) but the first one I was taught was actually the pulse point under your chin, because it also serves a purpose of calming you down. if you're angry or anxious, it might help, on top of cooling you off.

a second thing that I've done is, before bed, putting my comforter and/or my pillowcase in the freezer. only really works depending on size of the freezer and comforter, though.

I had a lot of responses to one of my more recent posts asking about linux distros, which was really nice and interesting to see what people said. I'll keep that in mind for future posts, thank you for the reply!

it's not honestly a beehaw issue, if that helps! I'm just a very anxious and insecure person in general, and I very rarely have engaged in online spaces. beehaw has been the first place I've felt safe enough to start trying to, after a series of bad discord servers.

y'all have a lovely place here, and I'm happy to be along for it!

but I feel like I should be doing better.

I have these kinds of thoughts often. but it's not a good way to think about things, as in, at least it's always been damaging to me. you shouldn't invalidate your own feelings. if you're not doing "better," that's okay. you don't have to be perfect just because nothing catastrophic happened. or because you feel like if you pushed yourself harder things would be significantly better.

procrastination is never for no reason, and as you said, you feel like a lot is at stake. you have a lot going on! and unfortunately, no one has instructions that will make the nebulous "don't get it wrong" voice go away. it sucks. I know that feeling, and I empathize.

what's helped me is to sit down, preferably with someone I trust and who respects my emotions, and make a little "plan." not a full one where I have x, y, and z plus an emergency one, but just something that will make me feel like the world isn't going to crash down around me at any moment. for example, I had to sort out with my partner what we would do if amazon rejected a return I made because money is tight. even just knowing the future isn't a mysterious void had helped me.

additionally, my only safe space is also my room where I live. I don't know what your living space looks like, but things that have helped me is buying something small to decorate it and make it feel more like my own, possibly getting a small living plant (I have aloe and haworthia, they're very easy to take care of and it sparks a little joy when I see them growing), or even just tidying up a bit, or moving things around so that they're not in the exact same place. when I feel claustrophobic and confined to my room, I try to go on walks (weather permitting!) to remind myself there is space that is safe outside of the house. listening to music or podcasts helps me too, if that's something you also like. I try for at least twice a week and find myself walking more than expected because it's nice to have that break.

I wish you good luck on the cake! and apologies if none of this helps. I just feel like our situations have some things in common and wanted to reach out with what solutions I have for myself.

I hope things get easier for you soon!