Super Jigsaw
Latest completed puzzle.
Next one. Possibly a little more challenging...probably not...
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Into the Dead
Update #7 just released announcing a new escape plan with new locations and NPC characters. Cool. Will get back to it next month.
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Starcom Nexus (2019)
Downloaded this space game after watching several YT streamer's critical review of Star Trek Academy, a show that hasn't learnt a damn thing from all the previous woke flops. And Mr Jingles' ongoing playthrough popped up in my recommendations as an aspirin and I was immediately interested.
Starcom Nexus is an "old" game (2019) available through Steam at the moment for a heavily discounted price (less than AUD10). There is also a newer version, Startcom: Unknown Space (2024), also available through Steam. Got the "old" game first to test it out. Definitely getting the second version after a few hours playing the 2019 version tonight.
It's exactly what I've been looking for with space-based games for so long - a straight forward simple space exploration game. Not on the same level of complexity as Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen. And I don't care. Space can be as complicated as I allow it.
What I also like about this little game is that you jump straight into it. No preliminaries. No need for tutorials or involved backstory. Your first mission gets interrupted in a very dramatic way. Now you have to figure out where the heck you are. And try to get back home in one piece.
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Not every race you encounter is friendly. Currently having to deal with the opnely hostile Chitik, an insectoid species that just wants to take over the universe. Not quite Tyranid level (40K), and by no means the only hostile species. Chitik are the first hostiles encountered. I've also met friendly ones like the Sauruds who want nothing more than to trade.
To cross those vast regions of space, you use wormholes (natural) and then there are the Nexus gates which are artificial constructs by a species long gone. Distances are vast so using wormholes are very useful, especially travelling from one part of the universe to another. Until you're able to research and upgrade, they are like buses/trains. Beats walking for sure.
Backstory is your character (mine is surnamed Elroy) is on their very first mission as a newly installed commander of a small shuttle craft. Tasked with a simple supply run, you suddenly find yourself flung across space along with the space station meant to receive your delivery. Now you both have to find a way to get back to Starcom space.
As such, you get to explore all the planets you come across and discover what goodies they contain.
This is a very easy game to learn. Playing it well however is not. Already mapped out a few locations showing both blackhole wormholes and Nexus gates. All the while, meeting up with new species - some friendly and some no so.
One of your aims beside getting back home is to, along the way, upgrade your ship through the expenditure of research points and obtained resources. You start with the bare-basic ship and work your way up to dreadnought which is the ultimate.
Nexus gates are marked with a blue atomic-looking symbol (see above) while natural stellar phenomenon like White Dwarfs, Red Giants, etc. are coloured astericks. Planets (several classes) are also coloured. Wormholes are marked purple with routes connected as broken lines.
Locations of significance will appear as flashing crosses until discovered and investigated.
Some planets will need to be surveyed after the initial scan will reveal anomalies. And sometimes the survey will remain active because a specific task has not been completed as in one planetary visit required a diver to explore various tunnel in four directions - north, south, east, west. Did so which yielded nothing so recall the survey party back to the ship. But the survey remains unfinished even though nothing was initially found.
I now suspect that you have to repeat the search for as long as you have air in your tanks. Each tunnel depletes five minutes of air. And you start out with one full hour.
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Starcom Nexus
Liking this game more and more. Yeah, it's not the "newer" version, Starcom Unknown Space, but this gives me that space exploration vibe most satisfyingly. The view below hints at this being a spiral galaxy (it's commonly referred to as The Rift by the Spacecom people in the game).
You do have to figure out situations such as the crew of the Jetson suffering an unknown incapacitating illness that depletes your crew by one for every hour or so you're on a mission. Which means having to keep an eye on crew numbers PLUS ensuring you're close to a wormhole or gateway. You initially don't know why or what is causing this dehabilitating condition until the Sauruds provide a clue by accident. And then you have to find the cure. But you have no idea where to start. Fun. The base station can't help either because they know nothing about the illness. But at least you have a ready supply of replacements as needed.
Other problems encountered include having to deal with neutrals such as the Aroana (a bird-like spacefaring species who are hostile towards anything related to the Phage which means they will treat all Earthlings with suspicion). They will extort a bribe from you to allow you to travel unmolested in their region of space. Simply tell them you'll locate the Nest Station to learn the recognition password when they persist after you've paid the bribe. You don't want to add more enemies than is necessary because you are basically alone in an unknown region of space. While the Chitik will always be hostile but are easily dealt to because Spacecom technology and weaponry is far superior the Aroana need careful handling because they are just as numerous. The obvious challenge for you is locating their Nest Station and obtaining the recognition codes so you can explore unmolested.
Nearly every planet surveyed offers opportunities for benefits. Some are straightforward while others take some consideration in order to be successful, i.e. one option may end in disaster while another end the survey abruptly.
Sidenote: Yep, the underwater tunnel dive does require navigating the tunnel system. Pays to write down the way you go otherwise your diver may take a wrong turn and end up dead. Fun.
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Starcom Nexus
Continuing to explore new regions of this space known at The Rift. And meet up with new species.
The Sentinels don't like being intruded upon. Did not know they use the Nexus Gateways to attack the homebase until I returned from one exploration to find it under attack. Chipped to help destroy the intruders. Their stations however are lethal. Died a few times miscalculating their laser beam technology which can scythe through our destroyers and shuttles into oblivion. The cruiser lasts a little longer but one needs to vamoose real quick. Hit T and you might survive. But linger and try to make a fight of it, and you lose.
So far, developed shield systems and finally got hold of laser technology. Advanced from shuttle to Cruiser. Short of ores to advance ship building through the Blueprints available. After an Explorer class or Battlecruiser, but needing lots and lots of ores.
Mostly explore new regions or else mine existing surveyed regions. And fight the good fight against whomever chooses to attack. Try and stay neutral with new species met such as coming across several stranded transport ships belonging to a lobster-ostrich type species. Helping them proved beneficial down the track when we happened across them in another region.
Then there are tree-like humanoids who've evolved from sentient trees. Initially got in trouble after felling a few trees. Once we cleared up the situation, we are now friendly with them.
The other trading races are no problem. Mind you, speeding in a crowded system can be perilous. Had quite a few prangs and collisions. Luckily nothing disasterous came of such incidents. Just don't drive in turbo in such confined spaces (lol) or you will regret it somehow.
The Sauruds have agreed to our request to trade. As such the Elroy has grown in reputation at the station thanks to our negotiating achievement. They've always provided a wealth of information about this region of space.
Unfortunately had to destroy the Aroana Home Nest station. Oddly, in other areas of space far from the home nest planet, those Aroana still active treat us as neutrals. But in their homeworld space, we are considered hostile and always are attacked by interceptors with their space jumping, or hopping, technology. Luckily our weaponry and defences overmatched them easily.
Still haven't figured out the password to unlock the citadel. Nor have our divers discovered a way in through the underwater maze of tunnels.
Game has several achievements of which one was eliminating the Phage. Our good head scientist aboard the Kite Station discovered a solution to the red goo that was attacking certain planets. Delivered the solution and at the same destroyed all remaining Phage ships. Unfortunately unable to impart that information to the Aroana homeworld because we are not welcome there.
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Starcom Nexus
Looking more and more like this is a spiral galaxy as each region of space is slowly being uncovered and mapped. Looks pretty colourful when viewed overall. But the distances are vast. Certainly grander than taking the car down to the shops.
Finally managed to access to Entarq's Citadel and discovered it's a galactic market town of sorts. Anything and everything can be bought here. Managed to acquire a few items needed for a specific task.
Also managed to antagonise and make enemies with the Vanderi who started out being neutral and friendly-like but who would extort a price from you in exchange for the garbled rubbish they tried to peddle. Sort of offering you nothing in exchange for something vital. They are similar to the Aroana who merely wanted a fee for entering their region of space; the Vanderi were simply aggressive traders who traded rubbish disguised as something. Eventually got fed up with their pushy style of "diplomacy" and basically told them to go shove it today. I was having a bad moment because they hailed me while I was dealing to Sentinel ships attacking me.
Now I've got the Aroana, Vanderi, Chitik, and Sentinels openly hostile towards the Starcom brand. Fortunately our technology is managing to keep pace or stay ahead of our enemies. But for how long?
Still friendly with the Sauruds, the "oompaloompahs" as I call them, and a couple of other races. Even managed to open trade negotiations with the Sauruds which was appreciated by my Starcom superior. Maintaining friendly relations with whomever we encounter is useful and offsets the hostility shown by other unfriendlies.
Also managed to find a cure for the sleeping sickness suffered by the crew of the Jetson. Finally. Now I can roam freely without the restraint of having to return to base and restock up on crew personnel.
Slowly upgrading my vessel (cruiser variant) through research and shipyard. Templates for more potent vessels can be had in exchange for supplying the necessary construction ores. Fortunately there are areas (see image below) where these can be "mined" using either your Havoc weapon system or Phaser turrets. You can also obtain the ores simply by destroying enemy vessels.
Also began labelling areas surveyed because it made sense given my own poor memory state. To quote fantastic drummer and all-around good guy, Canadian Larnell Lewis, "...the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory..."
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Starcom Nexus
Pressing 'Q' brings up the commander's log which is handy if you forget what was said, discovered, and so on. Hitting 'C' engages auto-thrust while tapping 'T' hits the turbo boost which is great for travelling long distances. How much energy it cost depends on the mods researched. Currently able to hit the turbo boost without losing energy. 'R' cycles through your secondary weapons (laser, missiles, short jump, axial rail gun, and so on).
Wanted to see what happens when you reach the map edge. Nothing. You just keep going.
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World of Warships
Cost and method of acquiring the new Commonwealth Unique commander Collins. Costing doubloons and other accumulated resources.
Where and how to obtain the Early Access new European battleship. So far, I have Yavuz & Tegetthoff. Both freely obtained or earned. This time round, however, I will wait the release of the line out of Early Access instead of whaling as before.
Uninterested to earning the European tokens so I concentrated mainly on grinding my special commanders. Played in sequence: Satsuma, Yavuz, Okhotnik, Guilio Cesare, Z-39, Le Havre. The last played was quite fun.
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World of Warships
Played Le Havre exclusively today. Mostly meh moments. Low moment was when I ran into the Tier IX Gustav Den Store on the Shatter map. The new Swedish battleship plays like a Karl Johan XIV because of it possessing torps which caught me out as I tried to reverse but was much too slow to escape.
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World of Warships
Another solo grind in Le Havre today. Notable for the return of the BOT players. They weren't so prevalent towards the latter half of 2025 (or maybe I just didn't notice as much). Or maybe I simply forgot they still existed. But today they've made their return in nearly every game. Days like today seriously make me want to facepalm.
Only highlight occurred in the last game of this session. I was paired with an Izumo spawning from the map south in the centre on the Greece map. We sailed up and took out the opposition without too much trouble; the Izumo claiming both kills on the Saint-Louis and Valparaiso. We had backup from a Valparaiso and Pommern. But didn't really need it as the Izumo was more than capable of dealing to both with its gunpower and torps.
With the centre cleared and under our control our quartet dispersed. I hung about firing on an enemy Valparaiso attempting to sneak around and cap our base. With help from another, it was sunk. Meanwhile, two enemy ships were still active on our right - a Pommern and Shimanto. They had taken care of our friendlies there and were capping the flank unopposed.
I was already aware of them, having consulted my map. The Izumo was already sailing towards them. I joined my teammate. While he flanked them, I waited for the enemy to emerge from behind the island face-on. Sure enough, the Shimanto appeared off my starboard quarter from one end of the island. Meanwhile the Pommern emerged on my bow from the other end.
I concentrated my AP shells on the Japanese cruiser because I spotted her first and managed to citadel her in my first salvo. My secondaries then whittled her health pool down before the Izumo, appearing from behind the enemy, finished her with his secondaries. But then the Pommern took down the Izumo leaving me to deal to the German brawler alone.
The other remaining friendlies had been dealing to the enemy on the other flank so I was on my own. Did the only thing possible. While dodging her torps and main guns, I simply sailed in and rammed her. Game over. Victory. Satisfactory outcome.
LESSON: ALWAYS check your map periodically. It's called situational awareness. You may not be a great or good player, but being situational aware is essential in your seabag of skills, and quite helpful to your team irrespective of outcome.
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World of Warships
WG is really making it easy for me this year. As per usual, every year since they introduced this policy, they keep foisting this on me. Starting early this year.
When they first introduced this policy, the idea was that it would synchronize ANY & ALL WOWS accounts under the one WG account umbrella because - believe it or not - many players had multiple WOWS accounts.
If, however, like me, you got into the game through Steam, all you needed to do was to link your Steam account to the WG account. If you did not have a WG account, then this option was necessary. It was meant to be straightforward. But it wasn't. Problems occured for many attempting to link their various WOWS accounts under the one WG account. And I was not exempt for no matter how many times I linked my Steam account to my WG account, I kept receiving this notification. Link, unlink, link, unlink. Same reaction: notification kept appearing.
The major issue with this is that you would get kicked out of the game unexpectedly.
It remained unresolved until situation settled down when after a while the notification disappeared and I was able to continue playing without further dramas.
But this "create account" keeps popping up randomly. Peridiocally. Annually. And the constant disruption to game play results. Once the "create account" disappears, so does being kicked from the game.
Today was particularly difficult. Only played two games but both times I was game disconnected. In the end rather than allow the growing aggravation get to me, I simply logged out of the game.
Always happens with this game. And only this game. Stress levels rising, as always. One day in the near future I may contact WG Support to properly resolve this "create account" problem. But not today.
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Santana
Lifelong fan. Easily my favourite rock guitarist ever. His playing introduced me to Latino style of rock and its soul groove that I love so much. Had nearly all his albums right up until the late 80s. His revival and resurgence with the global success of Supernatural (1999) is thoroughly deserved and now he's lauded and acknowledged as a genuine and living musical legend.
The album Zebop (1981) was a bop back in the day for me personally. Played it to death. Used to love playing the bass and singing along to The Sensitive Kind, my favourite song from the album, possibly my favourite Santana song ever. This is a J. J. Cale cover. Santana always did great covers. Alex Ligertwood sang this clearly and expressively and remains my favourite Santana vocalist out of the many that fronted the band.
And David Margen is my favourite Santana bassist and was an influence on my own modest bass playing skill.
Carlos Santana is able to express emotion so easily through his guitar playing. Melodic, soaring, profound. Transcendental at times. Evocative. Memorable always. Always makes me smile and want to groove and dnace.
Santana
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