Archive.org and cross your fingers?
Inners amirte?
If you liked Scalzi, I highly recommend Old Man’s War if you haven’t read it. I’ve only read first one, so I can’t speak to the rest of the series, but I really enjoyed the kind of gritty starship troopers-esq vibe laced with humor and realistic characters.
Agreed! I had a math professor once say that epiphanies usually happen in one of the three B’s: Bed, Bathroom, and Bus. There really is something magical about stepping away to let your brain chew on a problem.
Enh, I’m not so sure about that, one of the most unique parts of RimWorld is that the primary goal is to tell a story. Even the best stories need a bit breathing room for the action-y bits to have weigh. RimWorld is filled with stories about colonies that ran out of food in the dead of winter, lone survivor types that either bleed out or later died of infection after a freak hunting mishap, or trying to hide from the flames and wait out the raiders/ murder machines. It may be waiting, but I find that more often than not (especially in the early game), it’s either a welcome break after a hectic day or an edge-of-your-seat fight-for-survival kind of waiting.
Everyone plays a bit different, personally I’d recommend playing the vanilla game for a bit and using mods to flesh things out or iron out any rough edges in how you experience the game. The modding scene for the game is absolutely phenomenal, if at any point you’re going “gee, there’s got to be a better way to do X, deal with Y, or add more Z”, there’s probably a mod that does it, for example I like designing my colony fairly early on (so I have something to build towards), but since the existing mono-color plan gets confusing pretty fast (what was wall and what was workbench, tool cabinet, light, etc), I find More Planning to be a bit of a must have. As a blanket statement, the Vanilla Expanded mods are very well done and integrate neatly into the game (that said, they aren’t necessary meant to all be run at once, so you can pick and choose what you want and go from there).
I have a pretty decent list going, but if we’re just talking a short list of personal favorites, I really love Megafauna, Frozen Snow Fox’s Bionics, and Cyber Fauna. (Oh and a shameless self-plug for my own mods)
I’m 1800hrs in (with probably another couple hundred making mods), Rimworld is pure crack in all the best ways possible. Hands down the best $30 I’ve ever spent on a game.
Seconding the overwhelming urge to spreadsheet trade routes in No Man’s Sky.
Have you looked into HALCYON 6? Not quite buying and selling goods, but it might be a good spot to get your feet wet before diving into something super complicated. You do have space station and fleet and need manage resources (and upgrades) while scouting/ developing/ defending a broader galaxy. The end game can get a little repetitive, but overall it’s a pretty solid indy game with colorful characters, fun pixel art, and Star Trek vibes (plus it’s a little older, so goes on sale pretty regularly).
Uhh, I may not be the sharpest software developer in the shed, but I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking for here. By the sound of it, you’re looking to build and deploy an entire e-commerce website without any JavaScript at all, correct? Which makes me more than a little curious about what you’re expecting to use instead.