Ketram

Everyone else covered stuff pretty well. I guess I want to elaborate more on the writing style of 40K:

The reason why 40K grimdark stuff is so fascinating and not just depressing is because humanity has spread so far, to countless untold worlds being found and re-found as the warp fucks up space travel etc. that the value of a human life is essentially NOTHING.

They live in such horrible fascist, imperialist control, surrounded by countless incredible enemies and dangers that most imperialist groups just wipe out groups of people (or even planets) that seem corrupted, or straying, or whatever else.

I think understanding the level of oppression for these people is tantamount to understanding the morality and characters of rogue trader. As a rogue trader, you are one of the only wildly privileged people in the galaxy. Everyone else is so used to existing in this deeply fucked hierarchy in this deeply fucked universe, that to understand them you need to accept this is how their lives are.

Sorry if that was too vague, but it is important context, I think. This is a universe where the value of a human life is infinitesimal.

I feel like if you don’t enjoy any sort of “rush” from beating a boss or section you struggle with…this is exactly how it feels. I used to love souls because I felt accomplished when I succeeded. Now, I feel almost nothing because it’s never a matter of knowing if I can…it’s spending the time just to win. You need a way deeper combat system for me to feel like I accomplished anything more than memorizing the boss moves through trial and error.

Actually just got here with my friend. I felt the same way, I really wanted there to be a world where there was more than a “get improved dodge+ nimble onslaught, get auto revival and guts” for builds. Same thing with the majority of damage stats, there are only a couple that are actually good (big and multiplicative, pretty much just tyranny and stamina) so builds become very restrictive and based on specific sigil drops WAY too fast.

I feel your pain. You kind of HAVE to do perfect dodges to survive later fights consistently. I will say, if you get max Improved Dodge sigil it makes dodges practically twice as easy.

I will say though, endgame is so goddamn grindy. They’ve almost lost me as well, my interest has only survived because I’m able to AFK farm in the background while doing things on a second monitor.

Like my experience with most remedy games by this point. Cool concept, interesting world, so many things I SHOULD love…but the combat got so damn repetitive and unfun. Same enemy types over and over again. Killed all enjoyment for me. At least I finished it.

I hope you have a good one near you! I met many social workers at UU churches.

Good luck!

I would see if you have a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation near you.

It IS technically a religion, but it doesn’t feel like anyone is trying to make you believe anything, is aggressively LGBTQIA+ friendly, and is also welcoming to all races and cultures (it is literally in their commandments to respect people regardless of creed or views, and respect their individual search for truth and meaning).

While people there are incredibly nice, welcoming etc…the big downside is that most people at UU churches are usually older. It’s got a lot of “old hippie” energy, which is great but they might have less younger people if you’re looking for people in your age group. You won’t really know until you visit your (hopefully) nearby congregation.

They do have traditional church services, with sitting at pews and singing hymns (a select hymnal with a lot of pagany hymns) and a sermon, but the sermon is always about philosophical things and thought provoking stuff, or more recently about current events. For example, when I went for my first time to a nearby church, the reverend spoke about her life growing up queer and everything the world did to make her feel like she didn’t belong.

If you can give the church format a chance, I can’t recommend it enough. A lot of the greatest most loving people I have met have been UU, and I still love and cherish them to this day.

Sorry if this is too churchy for what you are looking for. I would say if you’re pretty liberal/leftist and you want to find groups that do/talk about stuff like that you can often find those connected to UU churches in some way and they’ll never pressure you beyond “oh we hope you will stay, we love to have you” and things like that.