lion crawl stone soup

It’s time for the hit new game of 2025, Lioden! (???) I blame Mav for this development. She made an account and was posting all kinds of stuff, and it looked fun so I joined in.

The “goal” here is to be an utterly filthy casual. Log on occasionally, amass a bunch of cool lions, look at event stuff. You know those people on Wolvden who don’t know how anything works and don’t even really play the game, and I’m like “why are you even here if you aren’t going to play the game?” I’m going to be one of those in Lioden. It’s gonna be great.

worm got me started with an incredibly generous starting gift of 20 gc. I’ve spent 15 so far: 1 on buying an heir, 10 on replacing my starter NBW lead, and 4 on opacity changers. (Opacity changers are expensive in this game, 2 gc each; I am going to have to curb my habit of changing opacities at will.)

In the WD server, there’s a general sentiment that WD is the neglected child, while the favored firstborn son LD gets all the devs’ love and attention. That’s probably true in some regards, but I’m surprised at how unpolished and unfinished LD feels. In many ways it seems like a beta/early access version of WD:

• Females have stats, but no use for them has been implemented
• Hunter and pupsitter are the only roles (I can imagine a dev update: coming soon: scouts and herbalists!)
• Also, hunters and pupsitters lack mechanics. Hunters have no proficiency or synergy; you just click on tiles and get free food. As for pupsitters, it seems they automatically ensure survival of any pups under their care, making the survival bar irrelevant.
• Devs aren't sure what they're doing with game balance so there’s no level cap for now
• Poor mobile support (it’s miles better than FR, but there’s still issues with explore, crossroads, etc. not displaying correctly)
• A lot of small QoL/polish issues, e.g. less informative den UI (no portraits or hunger bars), the sidebar does not update energy while exploring

As a longtime WD player, all these things feel like issues slated to be fixed in an upcoming update, but I think it’s just how LD is. Anyway, the point is not to punch down on LD, the hit new game of 2025. The point is, I no longer feel any resentment towards LD for being the firstborn son. And since I am a SUPER CASUAL LD player, jank systems are fine. It’s win-win. 

So, enough about mechanics. The squad so far:

• traffic scone the Fearsome (m), son of Primal Lord Colorbomb, lead lion
• safety dorito (m), grandpaw (retired lead)
• buffalo wild wings (f), lead hunter (Empire of Steel)
• starshine oreo (f), hunter (Empire of Steel). she was VERY cheap and I did not check her heritage before buying. turns out she is a father-daughter special. it’s fine. I am so casual I do not care.
• chibundu (f), pup, gift from worm. she’s the one who got the opacity changers. she’s probably going to be my pupsitter.

…also bonus donut, the tutorial NBW mate, but we’re going to yeet her as soon as she has her pups (might as well see the pups first).

(pictured: traffic scone, buffalo wild wings, and starshine oreo)