Goals

Oddly enough I've firmly entrenched myself in a circular rut involving two games--Slime Rancher and Prison Architect.  The main reason why I've found myself switching back and forth between the two is because I have made my own mental long term goals.  One of them is actually mildly achievement based and the other is purely for my own sense of achievement.  I've been spending what little time I usually have to play switching back and forth between the two and chipping tiny little pieces of rock away with the hope of completing my masterpiece.

Lately I have found myself pulled back into the grindiness of Slime Rancher.  I've discovered all the zones, wrangled all the slimes, finished the "adventure mode" that leads to the final credits...but I'm still not satisfied.  My ranch is a flat, boring collection of corrals and fields.  There is an entire list of purely cosmetic item which I could use to make my slime ranch into something beautiful.  My ultimate goal is to pimp out my ranch and make it into something genuinely awesome.  This has become quite time consuming because of my own weird self-imposed strategy--items which I consider vital are the first priority while cosmetic items should be the absolutely last priority.  All they do is make things look pretty...they don't contribute anything else.

A shiny slime lamp and my one awesome tree.

I also found that after I had completed the adventure mode that three hidden "vaults" were scattered across the world.  I've managed to find two but am lacking the slime keys to open them.  Oh, and I don't have the treasure cracker that is required to open the numerous treasure pods that are piled up in these vaults.  The vaults are on hold right now while I grind out the necessary plorts to build the one hundred items required to unlock the mega-treasure cracker.  I think I'm getting close, but really have no idea.

For now, I'm content just running around my ranch trying to keep my slimes fed and producing.  I have amassed a network of teleporters that are saving much time and effort in running around.  I even managed to place a few cosmetic items (slime lamps and one tree...one measly tree!).  It's a work in progress, but I am determined.

Another of my self-imposed mental grinds is taking place in my long running women's prison in Prison Architect.  My little sandbox prison has grown into a sprawling complex of almost 900 prisoners.  I've purchased land and attempted to work through the hiccups that come with managing a large number of prisoners.  These hiccups include the following enjoyably frustrating scenarios:

--Daily shankings.  I still haven't figured out a good way to keep my snitches safe.  They have their own wing that is located away from the rest of the prison population.  Most of the deaths seem to occur when they are travelling to different locations around the prison for work or reform programs.  The best solution would be to put all protective custody prisoners on lockdown.  I've been hesitant to do so because I want them to have the opportunity to attend reform programs.  I suppose having to be cooped up in a cell is a better alternative to getting stabbed to death while trying to make it to the alcoholics anonymous meeting.

--This yard ain't big enough!  As my population has burgeoned my small normal security yard just wasn't doing it any more.  I attempted to create a new, larger yard on a piece of land I purchased toward the upper corner of my prison.  The main problem--its location is too far away from almost anywhere that prisoners were coming from--they spent the one hour a day that I designated for yard time simply trying to get to the yard.  I had to move some things around (a big pain in the buttocks) but now I have one large yard and one smaller yard conveniently located near larger cell blocks.

Look at all these slacker cooks who are doing nothing!

--Why aren't the cooks cooking?!!!!  Another major struggle has been trying to keep my kitchens cranking out enough food to feed a prison population of almost 900.  I've built additional canteens but have run into a weird possible bug.  For a brief amount of time I watched as the army of cooks that I had hired milled around...not cooking...in the kitchen that prepares food for a large number of prisoners.  I checked the kitchen distribution logistics and everything looked fine.  After a few days of my prisoners getting maybe one meal a day (and getting volatile in the process) I finally decided to try de-zoning the room and re-zoning it.  That seemed to mostly do the trick.  Recently I built another kitchen/canteen to facilitate a new set of cell blocks and I am seeing almost the same thing.  Cooks are standing around...not cooking, not washing dishes...I don't really know what is going on.  One aspect of the game that I wish could be improved is the ability to assign cooks to specific kitchens.  I'm seeing a bunch of cooks standing around in one kitchen while I can barely get any to report to a different kitchen!  It's frustrating.

I don't know if anyone else makes weird mental goals like this, but I am bound and determined to see mine out until the gory end.