I just got done rereading it and am getting into Dune Messiah for the first time. While I still generally like it, some of what bothers me about the first book is how it never really feels like there’s any stakes. There’s never a question about what’s going to happen, it’s all predetermined for the most part and it tells you it’s predetermined. Then key moments/deaths that happen just sort of happen very quickly and without any fanfare, it’s just like, “Oh, ok, I guess they’re dead now. That’s it.”
And then the peak of the novel is another situation that just sort of happens without much buildup. It’s just, all the important players show up exactly where they need to be and get into an extremely unlikely & vulnerable situation that can taken advantage of. It just all happens too neatly.
Despite all that, I still like the book, though I’ve heard the series kind of has to keep one-upping itself as it goes on.
“Ok, I got you down for one large pepperoni and one large cheese pizza, and how many dicks did you need on each? … oh, no no, the dicks aren’t a topping, we just touch the pizzas with our dicks … Yes, we can cum on them too if you want, but that’s $2.00 extra. … ok, will do, they’ll be ready for pickup in a bit, bye.”
More tidbits for base building, because I've now joined a server and dear god these bases are making my eye twitch.
The palbox can be moved and it doesn't automatically destroy the base. It apparently destroys some objects (unsure of what, haven't seen it do that yet) and it shoves all the pals that are out into your personal storage (you should take them out manually first though by finding an empty page and filling it up. then you can easily put them all back) Do be quick putting it back though because everything slowly takes damage while outside the base area.
The palbox footprint is so freakishly large because there is a spawn area directly behind the palbox. That's where the players and pals spawn when fast traveling or summoned. They always spawn at the lowest point below that spawn area. So you can place it five stories up with the spawn area off the ledge and have people/pals spawn on the first floor. Sounds hilarious, must try in a server.
The palbox ring is really more of a vertical cylinder of control, not a sphere.
foundations can be raised and lowered easily if you try to build it as far from your body as you can
If you need to build a bit over a body of water, build a foundation as LOW as you can go, as far into the water as you can. Build a wall on the water side of the foundation, you can then build two roofs forward into the water and a roof and stairs towards the land. Extend that left and right as much as desired. It can look cludgey, but when every bit of space matters you can easily fit a ranch or farms on it. You can even throw the beds underneath this platform.
Quarries and lumbermills take priority. Pals seem to do tasks from left to right, so if you have a quarry, they don't do anything to the right of mine, and they don't mine anything but a quarry. Same thing with a lumbermill. 3 pals fill a quarry or lumbermill.
You don't need quarries and lumbermills, Especially on a server, just leave an area of trees and stone. You can mine boulders and trees for stone and palladium, and wood and fiber. All without a grinder. Yes it makes it slower, but also when everything is gone pals will do other shit while it grows back. Making it superior in many ways to a quarry or lumbermill.
I’m still early on in the game and just got the capability to build a second base. My first base I built on the beach at the back of the first island and it’s actually worked out pretty well because it’s apparently immune to raids. The AI pathfinding is so bad that the computer just doesn’t know what to do when it gets to that lower area cliff. There’s a part where that castle area breaks apart and there’s no good stairway down, so the raid enemies go as far as they can, stop and then just turn back around and disappear. I can even run up to them and start attacking them easily and they won’t fight back. I’m still not even sure how I’d handle a raid if I actually had them coming to attack me for real. The only problem with the beach area though is that apparently you can’t build foundations on sand, so you’re somewhat limited on the structures you can build (you can build everything else, just not structures that require a foundation).
The building mechanics in general are a bit disappointing. Like if you’ve played Fortnite, this is nothing like that and a bit more frustrating compared to that. You can only build two sets of stairs connected to each other, otherwise they need some other supports, so you can’t build any really big, interesting structures. Like I wanted to build a giant stairway from the beach up to the first area and there’s not really a good way to do it.
I mostly use Java for myself because I really only touch Minecraft for the mods now, however my kids (5+ years) play across a variety of devices and Bedrock is the only version that will work across the board for everything they all might be on, it just takes all of the complication out of it and I usually don’t have to do any tech support. Although I wish there was actual modding support for Minecraft (outside of all the junk you can buy from the store), I appreciate that they’ve simplified the experience in Bedrock.