Thread:L2game/@comment-33771590-20180609154910/@comment-35708978-20180611045636

Ha. No, SPS... I was just feeling so lucky to find such great folks (like you) in game and on the wiki to befriend a novice and offer help. And yes, I do read  the wiki a LOT. It been a huge help - definitely the guides and databases but also reading forum posts. I know all that took a tremendous amount of effort and I'm very grateful to the people who took the time and trouble to put it together. Speaking of people who contribute to the wiki, I did read the info from 4solace. Thanks for directing me there. I saw a lot of other links on her profile, etc that I'll be looking into as well.

I appreciate your offer of help and will defintely be taking you up on it. Right now I have only two issues. (Other than lack of sleep because of my new SS addiciton.)  One is working on my strength level. I try to charge each friends board my allowed 5 times so it quickly eats up the strength points. I think that will resolve over time as my reputation level increases. For now I try to focus on things that give weight rewards. (I got a gold weight reward today which was fantastic but it was gone in a flash.  I've managed so far to keep afloat with points, but barely.)  I have learned not to let my number of friends outstrip my strength.

The second thing is that I'm HORRIBLE at Gem Match. It's my nemisis in SS. I do fine with all the other puzzles and the pictures, usually with time left over. But I just don't think my brain works in a way that supports getting good at that game. I'm very analytical and detail oriented and it's my nature to strategize solutions to a problem (thoroughly but not necessarily speedily). So of course I've read everyting I could find about it on SS wiki. But when I start Gem Match I'm like a deer in headlights. When I read your post to me to not avoid the puzzles and pics I dislike, I gathered up about ten time machines and started a Gem Match puzzle that I was determined to win. I lost all the time machines as well a handful of explorer eyes in a heartbeat. I did win it but at great cost. I'd need millions of time macines to build up competency in that game. Anytime I've won a GM puzzle I felt like it was totally dumb luck. It seems like I can never predict what the heck will happen although I've reread the Gem Match info a bunch of times and refer back to it. Often I'll think I have a great strategic move figured out and it turns out to be a dud and some little 3 row match will cause a chain reaction I never anticipated. Actually I think I would enjoy the play of it if it didn't have such a short time frame but as it is I've been trying to avoid it. It just eats energy points and frustrates me. I'm going to somehow work toward getting a time talisman, gather up as many time machines and explorer eyes as possible and try the marathon approach recommended in the PDF for Gem Match. I'll also keep reading the wiki info and tips and tricks. Of course getting a time talisman and stock of time machines will take a long time. In the meantime, I only play it when I absolutely can't avoid it.

Well... that turned out to be quite a rant, didn't it? Ha. Thanks for letting me vent about GM which is the only fly in my SS ointment. Happy gaming and thanks again for everything. - L2game