Mine is playing AOE2 in easiest (or standard if I want a bit of challenge) mode against 3 bots. I just build my economy, wall up (and laugh at the enemy soldiers attacking my walls in vain), reach imperial age and attack once my army reaches the population limit. I also send 104 in the chat so they don’t surrender and I can enjoy razing their all buildings one by one. If any of them builds a castle, even more fun. A build a trebuchet and watch it raze the castle from a safe distance. If there is sea, after I am done with the land, I build 3 docks, do research and build a navy and hunt down ships around the unxplored sea. It is fun, satisfying and relaxing.

What is yours?

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    42·
    1 year ago

    Ah, you mean what do we do to cope with the crushing existential pressures of modern existence?

    In order from productive to not productive:

    Hike, photography, walking, playing music, writing music, editing photos/videos, producing music, cooking, playing videogames, Lemmy, porn.

    That about accounts for all the time I’m not sleeping, working, shitting, showering, or shaving,

    • tailiat@lemmy.mlEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      Sir/Madam, as an expert in this area, I draw issue with your comment: several of these can be performed WHILE shitting. The determination of which specific activities are compatible is an exercise left to the reader.

      • foggy@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        … okay so first, the word produce has like 600 definitions, so start there.

        Playing music takes me away from reality and my thoughts a fuck ton more than producing ever will.

        It is far more productive in terms of stabilizing mental health.

        What the fuck did you think I was “producing” on hikes?

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
          3·
          1 year ago

          To be fair I’d argue hikes are productive for the beneficial health effects. I know they’d be good for me for sure. With that said, very similar list, just add 3D to the mix lower on the list and the photo/video is my job so not really hobby nor relaxing.

          • foggy@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            Haha I excluded web development for the reason you’d exclude photo video editing. And also network adminning even though I do have a little self hosted media server setup

            Hikes are good for the body and the mind 🙂

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
    14·
    1 year ago

    I have two:

    • Lichess vs computer, easiest setting, trying to promote as many pawns to queens as I can before checkmating.
    • Civ 5, duel, Shoshone vs. Venice. No city-States, the only winning condition is time. Farming generals until Venice is reduced to a single hex.
    • radix@lemm.ee
      7·
      1 year ago

      I don’t normally watch streamers, but I suddenly want to watch you streaming lichess.

      • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
        2·
        1 year ago

        It would be kind of boring though. I rewind the moves quite a bit when I’m doing this. (Kind of weird since I make a point of never rewinding moves when actually playing, at difficulty 5.)

  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
    12·
    1 year ago

    Hah, I do the same in AoE 2 as well, though I put the AI to standard and like to give them grief, like build towers around their base early in the game, or use an army of monks to convert every unit they send towards my base, and build up my own army of converted units; or lure them into my base by deliberately leaving a gap in my walls, except the path to my tc is lined with towers along the way - sometimes I even make a maze of walls and towers and it’s fun picking them off one by one as they make their way towards my tc.

    But lately though, I’ve been doing all of that in 0 A.D., an opensource RTS like AoE. One of the cool things about 0 A.D. is the soundtrack, it’s really, really done well, especially considering it’s a free game; and I also like the customisable AI - in addition to difficulty, you can set their behavior to defensive/aggressive/balanced etc, and you can have a ceasefire period where the enemy doesn’t attack you at all for x minutes after the game starts, which gives you enough time to build up your base.

  • jaanus20@lemm.ee
    10·
    1 year ago

    Whenever I feel like I need a breather, I ride my bike. Just ride, not hard or fast, just spinning the cranks. Feels amazing.

  • Sordid@kbin.social
    10·
    1 year ago

    Replaying old games that I have fond memories of. We’re in an incredible renaissance of classic games getting source ports or updates that bring them up to modern standards, and I’m loving it. Daggerfall, Blade of Darkness, Jagged Alliance 2, Morrowind, Jedi Knight, Caesar 3… I’m sure I’m forgetting some many. They let me forget the present and pretend that I’m back in simpler, happier times, at least for a little while.

      • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
        2·
        1 year ago

        The Daggerfall Unity re-release was free some time ago on Bethesda’s official website. I’d check there.

    • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’m here for all these but my personal zen is Lucasarts’ Gladius. I have kept my original Xbox all these years just to play it but it was finally recently made backwards compatible for my series x.

    • boogetyboo@aussie.zone
      5·
      1 year ago

      I call it ‘havin’ a stare’. I just sit and either look into the distance or middle ground and do nothing. We don’t get to do a lot of nothing as we get older, so when you get those moments it’s nice to indulge in them. I’m not meditating, or being mindful, or any random words you want to use. Just havin’ a stare.

      My dog does this also, but his gaze is fixed on me and from the top of the stairs or round corners. It’s very unnerving and not even remotely relaxing for me, but maybe he enjoys it.

  • HipHoboHarold@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 year ago

    Watching cartoons from my childhood. Not quite as so early it’s Nick Jr level. But like I’ve watched Hey Arnold so many times at this point(my favorite), Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the Angry Beavers, Ahhh Real Monsters, Pete and Pete. I was so happy to hear Paramount+ had a bunch of those shows… but then all the striking stuff happened so I just went back to my hard drive with a bunch of the shows.