3d12's recent activity

  1. Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2024: Hidden gems in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    Since you're dumping lots of GW2 info, can you tell me how playable the game is in a 2-person party? One of the biggest turn-offs for me about FFXIV and MHW was that I kept having to drop out of...

    Since you're dumping lots of GW2 info, can you tell me how playable the game is in a 2-person party? One of the biggest turn-offs for me about FFXIV and MHW was that I kept having to drop out of my party to complete certain mandatory-solo quests to process the story, before I could party up again just to walk to the next solo quest together.

    1 vote
  2. Comment on Why we should buff more than nerf in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    Interesting you say this, since League of Legends has none of them Dota is boss, for sure. I've said for years, "when everyone is overpowered, no one is overpowered"

    Denying, Backdooring, Creep skipping, Creep pulling, and arguably the entire concept of jungling as people know it were all things [...] a less talented developer/team(?) would've just axed from the game.

    Interesting you say this, since League of Legends has none of them

    Dota is boss, for sure. I've said for years, "when everyone is overpowered, no one is overpowered"

  3. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    I think I know the platforming sequence referred to here... two possibilities Getting to the Sunless City, or (less likely) getting to the Hanging City. Sunless City was also incredibly...

    I think I know the platforming sequence referred to here...

    two possibilities

    Getting to the Sunless City, or (less likely) getting to the Hanging City.

    Sunless City was also incredibly frustrating for me to get to, but the satisfaction came from finding other paths out which then become shortcuts back in.

    Also, I didn't realize this until decently far into my run, but...

    jetpack tip

    holding Space while boosting upwards (Shift) adds afterburn to the jetpack, and this makes the Sunless City run way easier. I say this because I don't know if it's ever mentioned anywhere in-game, and I know I struggled on Ember Twin before I realized it. I only finally realized while trying to fight gravity on Giant's Deep.

    2 votes
  4. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    As soon as I got to chapter VI I went and made coffee, like "yep, this game will be replacing sleep tonight" I felt bad too, because I started it with my wife then finished it after she went to...

    As soon as I got to chapter VI I went and made coffee, like "yep, this game will be replacing sleep tonight"

    I felt bad too, because I started it with my wife then finished it after she went to bed. I got to experience her playthrough later though, including the discovery of my absolute favorite identity...

    big big spoilers

    The helmsman! I groaned out loud when I realized I needed no clues to figure this one out, it's like the logic puzzle equivalent of a dad joke

    2 votes
  5. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    3d12
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Papers, Please is an incredible game too. Very different experience though, but I guess you could call it a bit of a slow burn, because you have to be pretty invested by the time really...

    Papers, Please is an incredible game too. Very different experience though, but I guess you could call it a bit of a slow burn, because you have to be pretty invested by the time really interesting things start to happen.

    He also did some browser-based game about sending letters that I thought was very thought-provoking. Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. But yeah, both that game and Papers, Please evoke this weird feeling of overwhelming hopelessness under an overbearing regime. It's like if soul-crushing depression was its own sub-genre of horror.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Guess I'm still young enough to be angsty over a stupid game jam in ~games

    3d12
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    Frame challenge: you didn't "discover" a deadline, you finally set one. And you're the only one with the power to, if you're the only one working on a project. So why stop there? Game jams are...

    I was working on a VR experience [...] By a habby coincidence I discovered [...] a deadline!

    But today, [...] no deadline

    Frame challenge: you didn't "discover" a deadline, you finally set one. And you're the only one with the power to, if you're the only one working on a project.

    So why stop there? Game jams are usually 48 or 72 hours, so set that time aside (over an upcoming weekend, or take time off of work) and continue planning. Placing any weight on external factors to drive this is simply handing control of your project to people who aren't even stakeholders.

    I believe in you! Remember, SMART goals are most successful, and software iteration is best done in small chunks.

    7 votes
  7. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    3d12
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    Return of the Obra Dinn It feels weird calling a game that only lasted me 3-4 hours a "slow" burn, but there was such a satisfying transition from confusion to predictability to astonishment that...

    Return of the Obra Dinn

    It feels weird calling a game that only lasted me 3-4 hours a "slow" burn, but there was such a satisfying transition from confusion to predictability to astonishment that I will recommend this game to anyone who likes logic puzzles, old-timey sailboats, or murder mysteries in general.

    10 votes
  8. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    For anyone who doesn't have (or like using) a controller, it's still possible to beat the game without one. HUGE spoilers below, if you haven't played the game yet don't even think about revealing...

    For anyone who doesn't have (or like using) a controller, it's still possible to beat the game without one.

    HUGE spoilers below, if you haven't played the game yet don't even think about revealing this:

    How I did it All the entrances conserve momentum, and they deposit you in the exact same coordinates every time. So by lining up and accelerating into the entrance, then **taking your hands off the keyboard**, you can drift to safety before moving again.
    6 votes
  9. Comment on Dota 2 7.36 in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    I've posted a little about dota 2 in some general gaming threads, but not much. As far as I can tell, the audience for it here is significantly smaller than other games in the genre. But I'm here!...

    thought I'd see if there's any other dota fans here

    I've posted a little about dota 2 in some general gaming threads, but not much. As far as I can tell, the audience for it here is significantly smaller than other games in the genre. But I'm here!

    A quick search tell me Valve brought back guilds in 2020. Is there a Tildes guild already? If not, does anyone with Dota Plus feel like making one? Might be an easy way to see who's around and whether we can get a pick-up game going.

    2 votes
  10. Comment on Dota 2 7.36 in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    Anecdotal evidence here (sample size 1) but I think the bots may have gotten a stealth upgrade in this patch? Usually they flounder a little the days following a patch but they seem to have gotten...

    Anecdotal evidence here (sample size 1) but I think the bots may have gotten a stealth upgrade in this patch? Usually they flounder a little the days following a patch but they seem to have gotten slightly better this week. Maybe it's just me?

    I feel you though, I basically only play with bots these days because having to play 1v9 is incredibly exhausting. But I'd be open to playing PvP with a friendly 5-stack.

  11. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    3d12
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    I developed and released a chess vision exercise trainer, made with Flask: https://github.com/3d12/rookognition This is mainly significant to me as it's the first project I've released in v1.0...

    I developed and released a chess vision exercise trainer, made with Flask: https://github.com/3d12/rookognition

    This is mainly significant to me as it's the first project I've released in v1.0 form. It's exactly as feature-complete as I first imagined it, and I completely defeated scope creep this time, turning the whole project around in 2 days. I have a long list of improvements in mind, but I'm comfortably letting them brew in the backlog while I play with my new toy. I can only hope this training helps me fare better against my local club members next month...

    1 vote
  12. Comment on Is Emacs or VIM worth learning in today's day and age? in ~comp

    3d12
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    As others have mentioned, speed. I'll add to this a practical example. I switched my default note-taking app from Notepad++ to Neovim once I felt comfortable enough with the keybinds. And in the...

    As others have mentioned, speed. I'll add to this a practical example. I switched my default note-taking app from Notepad++ to Neovim once I felt comfortable enough with the keybinds. And in the fast pace of a quick-fire meeting, even the simple time-save of being able to use 'w' and 'b' to move forward and backward on word boundaries feels light-years faster than the process of: take my right hand off of home row, hold Ctrl with left, press left/right arrow, bring right hand back.

    I realize this sounds like a superfluous example, but I can't stress enough how much quicker the notes can flow when your hands almost never need to leave home row.

    9 votes
  13. Comment on Is there an intuitive (but powerful) music thingie? in ~music

    3d12
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    I've recently gotten my hands on a Polyend Play, and it's incredible. Especially for a DAWless setup, you can sequence 8 tracks of samples as audio output while simultaneously sequencing 8 tracks...

    I've recently gotten my hands on a Polyend Play, and it's incredible. Especially for a DAWless setup, you can sequence 8 tracks of samples as audio output while simultaneously sequencing 8 tracks of polyphonic MIDI (yes, that means chords) -- this thing has become the new heart of my studio tbh.

    Benn Jordan's got a great review, and he did a video where he took it across the country and used it to make music from samples he recorded on the journey. Definitely worth checking out.

    They also just released the Play+ which is basically the same thing but ~$250 more and has an on-board digital synthesis engine, so you can synthesize your own sounds instead of just samples. But tbh the regular Play is still worth the $, and you can find them cheap now that people are upgrading to the +.

    1 vote
  14. Comment on Justin Timberlake: Tiny Desk Concert (2024) in ~music

    3d12
    Link Parent
    100% this. Never would have described myself as a "fan," but this was legitimately good. And SexyBack was a friggin' bop. I got a serious "uncanny valley" vibe from JT the first few times he...

    I enjoyed this tiny desk a lot more than I expected!

    100% this. Never would have described myself as a "fan," but this was legitimately good. And SexyBack was a friggin' bop.

    I got a serious "uncanny valley" vibe from JT the first few times he smiles into the camera though. It looks like he was maybe feeling a bit stiff or awkward at the start but definitely eased up as the set went on.

    3 votes
  15. Comment on Tell me about your weird religious beliefs in ~humanities

    3d12
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    Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago, when I was regularly meeting up with an acoustic jam at my local library. It's called "Music is my Religion," and it's an expression of the spiritual...

    Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago, when I was regularly meeting up with an acoustic jam at my local library. It's called "Music is my Religion," and it's an expression of the spiritual sensations I found being part of that group.

    Music is my Religion

    Each morning, I find myself deep in worship
    There is no heresy here but silence
    No "dangerous other"
    Everyone is invited to sing praises to the gospel that resonates through us all

    Love is a wavelength
    Compassion is a time signature
    And the beat of human life is carried by the supernatural power embodied in the music

    I am not spiritual
    I am not a believer
    I am a musician
    And knowing this opens my soul to possibilities beyond what any god could provide me

    People bring their little ones to worship
    in the hall,
    in the audience,
    on the floor,
    wherever they can find room

    To join, or to listen
    To receive the melody's blessing
    To take part in the communion of our spirits
    with the music that surrounds us all

    Nobody comes to find value,
    or worth,
    or validation
    We gather to praise the keys and scales from which we compose our essence

    And when our composition is done, we disperse
    back to our normal lives
    made whole again by the timbre and tone
    carrying the beat with us

    Until the time comes to share our song again
    And we make beautiful harmony with each other
    Soothing to the ear,
    calming to the spirit,
    the tunes ring out,
    the catechism of our lives

    Music is my religion

    Background/Context

    I was raised loosely Lutheran, then started experimenting with different spiritual and philosophical beliefs all through college, before finally settling on an agnostic flavor of hard determinism. In essence, I don't think we'll ever definitively know whether there's a god, but I think it's far more probable that if they exist they are more of an absent watchmaker than an omnipresent overseer. And I believe free will is an illusion, just our perception of the natural forces guiding our actions.

    All that said, meeting up with this acoustic group was an incredibly intimidating prospect. I'd never played with other actual musicians before, just jammed around in a friend's garage. But to find such a welcoming environment, full of diverse and wonderfully talented people, was an incredible joy. It opened my eyes to the delight of playing music with others, and for the first time in my life I found myself enjoying listening to (and playing along to) Christian hymnals -- a favorite of many of the group's older members.

    I remember coming back to my apartment after a session and just pouring this whole poem out in one long stream of consciousness. I haven't had an opportunity to play with a group like that since, but I'm looking into options of starting a group in my area. If I can create an environment that can inspire even one person to feel like I did when I wrote this, I would consider that very meaningful.

    5 votes
  16. Comment on Palworld could be a delight if it wasn't so invested in being awful in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    Gonna stump for just a moment and say I had a great time with Cassette Beasts. For $20 it's a very solid competitor in this genre. The story, while still quite silly and "quirky" at times, hit...

    I think people want a fully fledged game with character arcs, mechanics beyond "fire beats leaf beats water beats fire."

    Gonna stump for just a moment and say I had a great time with Cassette Beasts. For $20 it's a very solid competitor in this genre. The story, while still quite silly and "quirky" at times, hit some serious tones too which surprised me, and the overworld is genuinely a delight to explore. The mechanics are also absolutely batshit bonkers, like this goes way beyond STAB and into genuinely interesting strategic territory. And basically every fight being a duo (2v2) means lots of ability to synchronize abilities for maximum effect.

    My personal favorite change? Reusable TMs. That scratched such an itch that I audibly sighed out loud in happiness when I realized. It's so much less stressful to be able to experiment with new movesets without needing to involve hours of grinding/breeding.

    10 votes
  17. Comment on Armored Core VI discussion in ~games

    3d12
    Link Parent
    Not a dig, but this comment made me genuinely curious. According to this page the global achievement stats on Steam have a 93.6% on the achievement for clearing the tutorial boss. You wouldn't be...

    Not gonna make excuses, I know plenty people got past this point.

    Not a dig, but this comment made me genuinely curious. According to this page the global achievement stats on Steam have a 93.6% on the achievement for clearing the tutorial boss. You wouldn't be counted in this figure, having refunded the game, and I'm sure you're not the only one. But out of only the people who haven't refunded the game yet, more than 5% haven't gotten past that point either.

    I don't really have a point. You keep being you, you're beautiful. 🙂

    1 vote
  18. Comment on What are your favorite ridiculous/absurd/campy Christmas movies? in ~movies

    3d12
    Link Parent
    This one is a tradition around my house, too. So many amazing casting choices all around, but usually all I have to say to get someone to watch it is "Andy Dick as evil santa." They also released...

    This one is a tradition around my house, too. So many amazing casting choices all around, but usually all I have to say to get someone to watch it is "Andy Dick as evil santa."

    They also released a trailer for the sequel back in 2017, alongside a slightly successful crowdfunding campaign and simultaneously launched a merch store... But it doesn't seem like anything else has come of the project lately.

    2 votes
  19. Comment on I've been looking into self-hosting, what's the best cost-efficient option? in ~tech

    3d12
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    I can't offer much advice, since everyone's situation is a little different, but keep in mind that the Pis have an ARM processor, and not all the software you want to use may be compatible. If...

    I can't offer much advice, since everyone's situation is a little different, but keep in mind that the Pis have an ARM processor, and not all the software you want to use may be compatible. If source is available you can usually compile for your specific target, but don't expect software to work out-of-the-box as much as using x86-based hardware.

    For what it's worth, I would trust a refurb from some place like woot.com more than a rando on FB/Craigslist. Or better yet, a local PC shop if you have one that won't price-gouge you on some last-gen tech.

    Power consumption is definitely a good consideration too, my oldest server was a desktop from 2008-ish that pulls 6A (!) which is way too much for a headless server, so it got replaced this year with something a lot more power-efficient. But of course, you can switch out the power supply on whatever chassis you find if you're so inclined, and that could be a good way to mix-and-match your way to some savings. 🤷

    6 votes
  20. Comment on Starter tool set for someone starting out in ~life.home_improvement

    3d12
    Link Parent
    Interesting you put DeWalt as good, when they were acquired by Black and Decker in 1960. In my own experience, they're great tools.

    Interesting you put DeWalt as good, when they were acquired by Black and Decker in 1960.

    In my own experience, they're great tools.

    1 vote