Chemslayer's recent activity

  1. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    Chemslayer
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    Finally finished Lone Wolf and Cub manga after several months and 28 volumes. Overall review is I liked it, and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a very serious samurai story, and doesn't mind...

    Finally finished Lone Wolf and Cub manga after several months and 28 volumes. Overall review is I liked it, and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a very serious samurai story, and doesn't mind some occasionally gratuitous nudity and plenty of violence.

    More in-depth, I feel like the series was padded out, and that a third of it could've easily been cut without impacting either the narrative or the vibe of the story. And that not to say I think a series should just railroad the main narrative at all times; in contrary, the "adventure of the week" style that most of the series takes is something I praised in an earlier post, and still does a good job of showing the "world" of Edo period Japan and the context the story takes place in. What I do mean is that the narrative itself gets drawn out: seemingly invented diversions get created for our hero at several points, including some that end up contradictory,

    spoilers

    like, he spends several volumes getting and figuring out the secret of the Yagyu letter, and then just decides... nevermind?

    There's also an escalation of enemies that feels like the author kept having to one-up himself; every other volume some new, even-more-elite-than-the-last group of warriors gets introduced, shown to be badass, then promptly dispatched by Itto and forgotten.

    Regarding Itto over the course of the series, I wish his power scaling had been treated differently. He starts the series as a pretty dang good swordsman, but also a really clever guy who uses knowledge and subversions of Edo standards and customs to accomplish his goals. As the series goes on though, he loses his cleverness, and instead just becomes "really, unrealistically good at swords".

    He really jumped the shark for me when

    he defeated an entire mounted and armored army by just being good at swords, and especially later when in a drug-induced sleep his warrior reflexes still dispatch an entire group of enemies attacking him, including deflecting projectiles thrown at him, all while dead asleep.

    It seems like Koike got tired of trying to come up with clever situations, in favor of a god-like samurai narrative instead.

    Yagyu spoilers towards the end

    The reverse heel turn of Retsudo going from a scheming guy willing to do anything into an honorable samurai during the Abe arc also felt really out of character, and was then even more confusing by his ending re-heel-turn of going back to dastardly tricks with the exploding ninjas and breaking the sword. And then after all that, he lets Daigoro kill him??

    That's all to say, it's not a masterpiece of consistent characterization or stakes-progression, but despite my criticisms it was still a very enjoyable read, and I would recommend it with only little reservation

  2. Comment on Do you play knock-offs of celebrated indie games? in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    Game mechanics can't be patented, but game rules and terms can, which is a crucial distinction. The example that always comes up for me is Magic the Gathering calls turning a card sideways "Tap",...

    Game mechanics can't be patented, but game rules and terms can, which is a crucial distinction. The example that always comes up for me is Magic the Gathering calls turning a card sideways "Tap", "tapping", "tapped", etc. They can (and do) have a protection on the phrase tap to reference that, which is why every other card game uses "exhaust" or "exert" or some other term. But the idea of turning a card sideways to signify it being used is not patentable/copywriteable, which is why those games can do that.

    So you could have your own card game, have your dudes get expended, and ready on your turn, and its all fine, but if you call them getting "tapped" or "untapped" you could end up in trouble.

    Video games have extra layers of complexity, since you can be dealing with specific software and hardware manipulations (like the other person posted), but the core is still you can't patent or copyright a general mechanic. Of course, patents are like any human system, flawed, and occasionally a big name with a lot of leverage might get something through (like the fairly recent Nintendo patenting Battling with Monsters), but even then it is usually challenged and defeated (I'm not up to date, but last I heard the aforementioned Nintendo patent was on its way to being tossed).

    8 votes

  3. Comment on Steam Controller 2 sold out in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    Jesus, I made a comment to my friend this morning that it was kind of a niche item, and with the $99 price tag too I wasn't expecting it to pop off. Thankfully, I did log in 3 minutes before they...

    Jesus, I made a comment to my friend this morning that it was kind of a niche item, and with the $99 price tag too I wasn't expecting it to pop off.

    Thankfully, I did log in 3 minutes before they went on sale (only to discover they had gone on sale early, which annoyed me). It took me twenty minutes of trying to get through the payment processor issues, and during that time the expected ship date went from 3-5 business days to 6-10, but I did manage to snag one. I had originally planned two, but an accident seemingly bricked my e-reader yesterday, so I have to save some money for that.

    Glad to see it's popular, hopefully means they'll continue to support and iterate on it (coughability work without steam pleasecough), and I'm excited to try it for myself when it arrives

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    Finally getting around to playing Monster Train 2's new DLC; I put about 120 hours into the base game last year and it was great. I bought the DLC on release to support it and am glad to finally...

    Finally getting around to playing Monster Train 2's new DLC; I put about 120 hours into the base game last year and it was great. I bought the DLC on release to support it and am glad to finally be getting around to it.

    Besides two new clans (technically one returning from MT1 and one brand new), the big feature of the DLC is the new Soul Saviour game mode. That's right folks, they added a roguelike mode to this roguelike game! It's an interesting new take, very much more non-linear, and while I haven't broken the game with any of the souls yet I can feel the potential. It is also much harder than the base game, which is a nice little challenge.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    Chemslayer
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    About a quarter way through Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which I got a rec from a meme of all places haha. It's been really good so far, it's a grounded drama following some Korean peasants at the...

    About a quarter way through Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which I got a rec from a meme of all places haha. It's been really good so far, it's a grounded drama following some Korean peasants at the beginning of the 1900s. Despite being very low-key (in addition to being realistic, these are peasants struggling to get by, not British nobility having balls), it has had a lot of Drama, and has also been a very smooth read.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Lost/losing the drive for friendship in ~health.mental

    Chemslayer
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    Less common advice: find a cooperative! Depending on where you live they will be more or less common, but any given city usually has a few. Most will be student coops for college kids, but there's...

    Less common advice: find a cooperative! Depending on where you live they will be more or less common, but any given city usually has a few. Most will be student coops for college kids, but there's plenty of adult co-ops as well.

    I've lived in one for almost 4 years now, and it's been great, you get a community of people you see all the time casually, and have a shared purpose (either some cause the co-op dedicates itself to, or at its simplest at least a purpose of "living together in this house"), and usually have community traditions or events that help build bonds.

    Every co-op is going to be different, so I'd shop around to try and find one that fits what you're looking for. It does come with costs, having to share both common space and responsibilities for organizing and taking care of the household, but the sense of community is the closest you can get to a "secular church" imo. Happy to answer any other questions as best as I can, if youd like l

    8 votes

  7. Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Damn, that does suck. I have to figure out how much I care about it; my only gaming device is a steam deck, so even non-steam games are being launched through steam anyway, so in theory it doesn't...

    Damn, that does suck. I have to figure out how much I care about it; my only gaming device is a steam deck, so even non-steam games are being launched through steam anyway, so in theory it doesn't affect me at all. And I trust valve to actually do the work to open up compatibility later. But I really don't understand how it can't keep a "generic Xbox controller" load out built into the hardware in case steam input isn't running. Again, highly unlikely to actually affect my life, but the knowledge that I couldn't use this controller with anything besides my steam deck stings

    1 vote

  8. Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Does the controller need steam, or does steam input need steam? Afaik it works fine as a Bluetooth/wired controller with anything, but needs steam for the remappable steam-input layer (which would...

    Does the controller need steam, or does steam input need steam? Afaik it works fine as a Bluetooth/wired controller with anything, but needs steam for the remappable steam-input layer (which would be cooler to not need that but seems like a fine compromise either way)

    2 votes

  9. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Chemslayer
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    Mewgenics, and I'm slowing down greatly. I got the final ending (I think), and now I'm just playing for completion, unlocking the hardest difficulties, beating house bosses, quest items, etc....

    Mewgenics, and I'm slowing down greatly. I got the final ending (I think), and now I'm just playing for completion, unlocking the hardest difficulties, beating house bosses, quest items, etc. Frank wants a frankly (lol) absurd number of veteran cats, unless I just run the alley over and over it's going to take forever to get him maxed out. I did finally get my 4th room, which I've dubbed "Thunderdome": all my reject cats go there to live with all my Appeal furniture and fight/fuck/die to their heart's content. I have so much food the extra mouths aren't a concern, and I figure they'll be good stock to feed to Tracy/Injury Boy/??? to grind out the last of those. And in the rare case that a good specimen rises from the filth, it can be moved to a proper room.

    As an aside, I really appreciate how the game mechanics kind of naturally lead you to be an uncaring abusive cat hoarder. Rather than some cheap shock value of like, a cat murder simulation or something, the game overwhelms you and sets up incentives to lead you to the behavior. Maybe a subtle commentary on abuse and the conditions that lead to it?

    I'm at nearly 200 hours, so definitely got my money's worth, remains to be seen if I have the patience for 100%. Would highly recommend

    8 votes

  10. Comment on What are your go-to meals that you cook? in ~food

    Chemslayer
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    Pork N Beans! I melt some butter in a pot, put in some nice sausage to get crispy (I love Opa's Jalapeno Cheddar), then add a can of Ranch Style beans and heat. Serve with saltines. I've been...

    Pork N Beans! I melt some butter in a pot, put in some nice sausage to get crispy (I love Opa's Jalapeno Cheddar), then add a can of Ranch Style beans and heat. Serve with saltines.

    I've been experimenting with adding some vegetable too; I really enjoy kale after the sausage but before beans, but I can't eat enough kale to get through the giant bags without most of it going bad. I'm exploring frozen options, and frozen cut okra has been neat, I do let the beans stew a little longer to give the okra time to soften. I tried frozen spinach and that was awful, do not recommend. My local store doesn't sell frozen kale sadly. Might try broccoli soon!

    1 vote

  11. Comment on “Dungeon Crawler Carl” now available to libraries exclusively on Libby in ~books

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Unfortunately seems to be his modus; as of now, the ebook is only available for purchase from the highly-walled-garden kindle ecosystem. I don't really know anything about the author as a person,...

    Unfortunately seems to be his modus; as of now, the ebook is only available for purchase from the highly-walled-garden kindle ecosystem. I don't really know anything about the author as a person, but I doubt he's intentionally keeping these exclusive. But I imagine he's been swept away by the sudden crazy success, and isn't super concerned about accessibility, and probably he (or his agents) are getting sweetheart deals for the exclusivity

  12. Comment on Is there a FLAC equivalent for digital comics? in ~comics

    Chemslayer
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    I sort my comics using Calibre (which is just a book organizing tool). I usually convert my comics to Epubs if they aren't already (using Kindle Comic Converter). Then, open the comic in question...

    I sort my comics using Calibre (which is just a book organizing tool). I usually convert my comics to Epubs if they aren't already (using Kindle Comic Converter). Then, open the comic in question with Calibres "Edit Book" function, go to File>Edit Pictures Losslessly, and when the menu pops up select "Allow lossy compression" with a quality of 80%.

    In doing this I cut the size massively, usually 30-50% for mangas, and surprisingly 80% for most western-style comics (going from 300-400MB down to usually 30-50MB). And I really can't tell any difference; my e-reader is 11", so larger than most comic pages in real life, and I notice zero issues in the art or anything that only it was compressed at all.

    Calibre does also have the option to Losslessly compress, but that cuts size by 5-10% at most usually, and given that I can't tell even looking for it it's much worth it to lossy compression instead

    2 votes

  13. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    Chemslayer
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    I'm drawing my own tarot deck! I found a book of games to play with tarot cards (which I posted about elsewhere on here), but discovered my Shadowrun Tarot Deck wasn't very convenient to play...

    I'm drawing my own tarot deck! I found a book of games to play with tarot cards (which I posted about elsewhere on here), but discovered my Shadowrun Tarot Deck wasn't very convenient to play games with. The book intro mentions they made their own titular Dealers Tarot to play with, and suggests print and play or to draw your own!

    So I'm making my own deck, based on me and things in my life. I've assigned each suit general themes to help inspire myself, but besides that I'm just doing whatever makes sense to me. I've completed and colored two cards already, and sketched/planned a few more.

    I'm drawing them in the notebook app on my Boox Airnote 5C, which limits me pretty severely in terms of colors (16 total, 5 of which are black/white and 3 greys), and I'm not a very technically-skilled artist to begin with, so I'm keeping it intentionally abstract, which I think fits tarot vibe better anyway.

    It's been interesting, trying to dig up my personal history and life to draw cards has been tough at some points, it's sort of a mini-reckoning of my life choices and the people and things I've kept and those I've left behind. I'm not in a rush, and 78 custom art pieces will take a long while, but I'm excited to have something deeply personal both from a creative and a historical standpoint at the end of it.

    Here's an example of one of my completed cards, the Three of Cups. I didn't even want to attempt to draw people, so I made what I've dubbed "beanpoles" to be super simple versions instead

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Your favourite karaoke songs? in ~music

    Chemslayer
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    Kryptonite by Three Doors Down is my classic! Easy to do (mostly slightly-musical speaking), and you get to do the big "YEAAAAHHHHHHH" towards the end. Bad Guy by Billie Eilish is another fun one...

    Kryptonite by Three Doors Down is my classic! Easy to do (mostly slightly-musical speaking), and you get to do the big "YEAAAAHHHHHHH" towards the end.

    Bad Guy by Billie Eilish is another fun one for me, get to ham it up a little.

    Your Idol by The Saja Boys (K-Pop Demon Hunters) is fun, esp if you get someone else to do the second singer verse.

    In The End by Linkin Park is just a good song, and fun to sing

    Birdbrain by Jaime Paige is goofy, although unlikely to be in most Karaoke catalogs unless they're doing it YouTube style

    Lastly, The American National Anthem is not and should not be a karaoke song, but my friends and I spontaneously sang it 8-part harmony after the karaoke place remotely shut off the machine. I would def not call anyone in my friend group a patriot, it was surreal and hilarious

    3 votes

  15. Comment on The Dealer's Tarot - Modern games to play with a tarot deck in ~games.tabletop

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    Augh, more rulebooks to purchase and read through! I do love it lol. Got to wait for a little more budget to justify rulebooks for games I may never get to play, but they both seem really...

    Augh, more rulebooks to purchase and read through! I do love it lol. Got to wait for a little more budget to justify rulebooks for games I may never get to play, but they both seem really interesting. I really like the idea of Worm's focus on inventory management, esp since they claim to make it fun

  16. Comment on The Dealer's Tarot - Modern games to play with a tarot deck in ~games.tabletop

    Chemslayer
    Link Parent
    There's just so much potential! Cards let you have "hands", which can give encounters a more tactical resource-management feel. Decks can be customized, like for example you could start with a...

    There's just so much potential! Cards let you have "hands", which can give encounters a more tactical resource-management feel. Decks can be customized, like for example you could start with a deck of just 2's and 3's, and add higher cards as you increase your stats. You could have certain cards (faces? Aces? Jokers?) be magic items or super special capstone abilities. You can have the four different suits correspond to different stats!

    I haven't come up with a cohesive ruleset yet, but I feel like there's so much space to play in, and could really be a fun twist of traditional ttrpg mechanics, keeping the randomness that makes the storytelling fun but adding a little more agency.

    I have played regicide! Funny enough a name-brand version. I do love that it is just a standard deck however, and gives a more meaty option (and cooperative!) vs the usual 52 card fare

    1 vote

  17. Comment on The Dealer's Tarot - Modern games to play with a tarot deck in ~games.tabletop

    Chemslayer
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    Found this today via the level 99 newsletter, I grabbed the ebook version and read through them. The games seem very compelling, and I appreciate that each is loosely based on the major arcana....

    Found this today via the level 99 newsletter, I grabbed the ebook version and read through them. The games seem very compelling, and I appreciate that each is loosely based on the major arcana. Hoping to try them soon, I do have a tarot deck (not for divination purposes, but to list the major arcana as a grounding method, which I know from Binding of Isaac ha).

    Overall, I'm a sucker for games that use non-proprietary components (standard decks of cards, dice, etc); I love them for their open-source-ness obviously, but I also like that they allow for personal customization and flair, as you can get a deck of cards or a set of dice in a thousand different styles/arts/etc. My dream is to one day develop a card-based TTRPG system, and I hadn't thought of using Tarot before but may have to consider it.

    As an aside, I learned from this purchase and subsequent wiki'ing that apparently tarot originated as just playing cards hundreds of years before they were assigned mystical importance! Pretty cool to take them back to the root in this way.

    Curious to hear if anyone's played these, or if you know any other tarot-based games!

    11 votes

  19. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    Chemslayer
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    Just finished The Shadow Rising, book 4 of the wheel of time. Really enjoyed it! I can see why some people say the series slows in the middle, as this book had a lot fewer action scenes than the...

    Just finished The Shadow Rising, book 4 of the wheel of time. Really enjoyed it! I can see why some people say the series slows in the middle, as this book had a lot fewer action scenes than the previous, but I am really enjoying the buildup and history/world building that is being established

  20. Comment on Strange Romance bundle by Image Comics in ~comics

    Chemslayer
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    Saga vol 11 & 12! My procrastination pays off again! This bundle is an insane value for 12 volumes of Saga alone (although I wouldn't really call it a romance, it's more of a gritty sci-fi thing)....

    Saga vol 11 & 12! My procrastination pays off again!

    This bundle is an insane value for 12 volumes of Saga alone (although I wouldn't really call it a romance, it's more of a gritty sci-fi thing). I've also read A Thing Called Truth (from another HB), and it was good and fun, but does end on an annoying cliffhanger. I believe the second half has released now, but I haven't checked in a while.

    6 votes