Looks like generic chinese mechanical keyboards you get in flea markets.

My first mech was very similar, got it for less than 5 bucks and came with kailh blue switches. Body was solid but switches left a lot to be desired.

Bye Bye!

Oh the black one looks gorgeous! Someone on reddit posted a similar looking pen on the post I made there. Hmmm…

Oh I was this close to making a purchase on the Hongdian, and I know the feeling. I have been secretly coveting my sister’s wooden fountain pen by Hongdian. Thing’s a beauty and writes like a dream!

I wish I could be objective and scientific about it. But maybe try to put my thoughts into words: build quality to me is the overall feel of the body of the pen. Looks wise, uniform reflections on the body indicating that it’s smoothly built. Smooth feeling in hand. Consistency in every operation. It also need to able to survive falls and being tossed around. So, body should be sturdy.

As for the nib, I can usually tune it to my liking so not too overly concerned about that. As long as it’s got some spring factor to it, it’s good enough for me.

The reason I don’t mention too much of this is that I am trying to keep an open mind. I don’t have any experience with high quality pens, just the usual chinese suspects, so maybe someone here has a better or more stricter definition of build quality in their mind.

Okay wow, sometimes simpler is better. If I can find this in metallic smooth finish (don’t like matte) it’d be a serious contender. Thanks!

Sheaffer 300 white dot

I’d heard from here and there that Sheaffer’s build quality and QC went to shit a few years ago, so I’d ignored its offerings out of hand. But if build quality is good, and this looks very similar to parker, added to the top of the list. Thanks!

You raise some excellent points about the lamy eco-system. Though I’d have ignored Al-Star out of hand based on the looks, but I know that in-person things look much different than on web. I’ll try to find some local stores to see how it looks. Cavalier looks interesting but isn’t thicc or curvy enough for my tastes. Damn it! I again started fondling the hour glass figure of my parker while typing this. Something must be wrong with my brain.

How is the overall build quality? I know that it’d be dirt cheap to acquire but I don’t like spending all that effort getting it, tuning the nib to my liking, and finally just gifting it to someone else lol. Though I am very intrigued by Chinese offerings for snap cap, I’ve been looking for them for some time to save some cash if possible but nothing good turned up yet.

Hmmm, this game looks sweet, maybe a good option for future once military fever is down a notch.

Thanks, we haven’t played through other cod coop campaigns as much as WAW so it’s definitely a viable option if nothing else comes up.

Thanks, we tried this earlier but me and my buddies can’t seem to do stealth no matter how much we try. Now if it can be a viable strategy to go guns blazing then that’d be a different story.

Yeah, not what we’re looking for right now but we’ve played through halo games and it was a blast. GOW didn’t sit right with us, perhaps due to the third person view, but we are going to give it an another try in the future. Just now, we got the COD itch. We’ve completed world at war campaigns so many times that now we just blaze through it on full autopilot now…

Thank you, I think this one’s closest to what we are looking for.

Schrodinger’s Brain

As the other commentator stated, you’re looking for a FP.

The things you’re describing can be easily found… but they usually cost a lot to have all of the qualities at once.

That is unless you can get your hands on chinese FPs where you live. I get mine ftom aliexpress.

Now from my own personal experience you can’t go wrong with either Jinhao X159 or Jinhao Dadao 9019.

You can get a fine nib which I think is the perfect balance between smoothness and crispness.

Another tip: if you find that the feeling of the nib is not to your liking, you can tune the nib. There are many excellent tutorials for this and you can do it at home without special equipment.

Since money is a problem, you’ll probaly have to substitute it with your time in getting exactly what you want.

While others have answered your question, I just wanted to go on a tangent and add to some of the same frustration that you felt.

I hate hand holding in this game. I feel like missions trap you into playing a certain way. You have to treat the missions like they are an interactive movie experience. But otherwise, the open world exploration is fun.

For future, If you really like freedom but also need some goals and story and not just a sandbox, I would recommend trying either legend of zelda botw or totk. I think you can emulate BOTW on steamdeck.

If you can take some punishment then Elden Ring is also a great choice.

I hope that you can enjoy this game though.

I wanted to be a theoretical physicist. Somehow ended up running a small AI company. Money is nice but I still think of persuing my dream once I have enough saved up.

For a sec there I thought it was a post from the Onion