Fiachra's recent activity
-
Comment on Re-watched the Bourne Trilogy after several years, I understand now why it was so influential in ~movies
-
Comment on SpaceX stock tumbles 23% from its high as average investor sees gains wiped out in ~finance
Fiachra Link ParentI had read that insiders were locked from selling and were being gradually unlocked in small cohorts, which is why this price tumble surprised me. I expected trickery to keep the price going up...I had read that insiders were locked from selling and were being gradually unlocked in small cohorts, which is why this price tumble surprised me. I expected trickery to keep the price going up until a majority of the insiders got their chance to dump.
-
Arc Raiders is hilarious
I think the simplest thing Arc Raiders nailed about gameplay is the pacing. The enemies move at such a pace that you never get instantly vapourised; you always have a second or two to try...
I think the simplest thing Arc Raiders nailed about gameplay is the pacing. The enemies move at such a pace that you never get instantly vapourised; you always have a second or two to try something crazy even when you're utterly doomed. The times that 'something crazy' works you have a unique memorable moment. Let me tell you about one of mine.
A Rocketeer is a common headache in Arc Raiders. It's a quadcopter drone the size of a tank that shoots rockets. It usually takes a big and expensive weapon to take one down, but players started to take notice of an item called a 'Hornet Driver', basically a stun grenade. What happens when you stun an aerial drone? That's right, it drops right out of the sky, to its doom if the fall is far enough.
With this in mind, I emerged from some tunnels to find another player pinned down by a Rocketeer. I throw a Hornet Driver, it hits just the right spot and the Rocketeer drops to the ground but is unharmed... and then in trying to angrily get back in the air it flips itself over on its back, completely immobilised. The two of us strangers hesitate for a split second before we sprint over and beat the thing to death with hammers.
There are flaws in this game but in terms of creating organic events it's been a great time.
20 votes -
Comment on The man who's spent a lifetime making one, giant map in ~games
Fiachra LinkI agree with a statement in the video: the real achievement here isn't the map, it's the ruleset that produced it. I'd be very interested to see a full scan of that rules notebook and the deck of...I agree with a statement in the video: the real achievement here isn't the map, it's the ruleset that produced it. I'd be very interested to see a full scan of that rules notebook and the deck of cards he's using.
-
Comment on Iran war live: US, Tehran confirm ‘peace deal’ reached in ~society
Fiachra Link ParentI'm thinking that everyone will be so happy the strait is open that they'll agree some vague 'statement of intentions' re: nuclear research and Trump will sell it to his followers as the most...I'm thinking that everyone will be so happy the strait is open that they'll agree some vague 'statement of intentions' re: nuclear research and Trump will sell it to his followers as the most incredible deal in history, if they even remember Iran after 60 days.
-
Comment on Tildes Survey #9: How optimistic are you about the future? (Results) in ~talk
Fiachra LinkI have some strong feelings about this so here is my argument for optimism: Technology has been going up the whole time, and the culture war is set up to rubber-band in the good direction in a few...I have some strong feelings about this so here is my argument for optimism:
-
Technology has been going up the whole time, and the culture war is set up to rubber-band in the good direction in a few years. Just as the pendulum had swung far in the progressive direction in 2015 before rubber-banding to conservative-reactionary. The problem for the conservatives is that they've tried to artificially lock in their win by subsidising podcasters and buying up platforms to fragment critical communities, which has only pulled the spring back further. When it snaps back there will be political change.
-
Optimism is a pragmatic political choice. You can only make the world better if you believe it can get better. Doesn't matter if you don't see how. If you care, you must believe there is a way to fix things, you must be waiting every day for something to come along, for someone to come up with something and then get behind it. You must savour the small victories, because every big victory is made of a thousand small ones. I speak Irish in the home with my one-year-old. We already have a small library of books in Irish for kids and adults. That means the Irish language will still be alive in the year 2100. That's a victory. It doesn't fix the general trend, but there is no solution to the trend if nobody is willing to do that.
-
Doomerism (often) isn't a political belief, it's procrastination. This doesn't apply to everybody obviously but it also isn't nobody. Social media culture dictates that everyone has political positions, but most of them don't want to act on those beliefs because they're social media addicts, all they wanna do is scroll and post. Their excuse is doomerism. In terms of online discourse doomerism is kind of perfect: it's a strong belief so you're not an uninformed centrist normie, you have maximum scope to criticise every other ideology that does things in the flawed real world, it's too abstract and passive to be criticised itself, and you don't have to do anything to prove your commitment or avoid being called a hypocrite. I reject doomerism because I see it for the trap it is: an excuse to be comfortably lazy. Excluded from this are, obviously, people who have literally lost hope due to long-term material and political conditions holding them down. They can and should feel how they feel. But non-marginalised people like me should not be hiding from the world's problems in the comfort of our safe homes.
-
-
Comment on Website is unhappy in ~tildes
-
Comment on Elon Musk net worth estimated at $1.1 trillion in ~finance
Fiachra Link ParentThe board game Monopoly always ends eventually, the rules make it inevitable.The board game Monopoly always ends eventually, the rules make it inevitable.
-
Comment on Elon Musk net worth estimated at $1.1 trillion in ~finance
Fiachra LinkYou know when one person gets too far ahead in monopoly and everyone else is just sitting around thinking 'thank god this game is ending soon'?You know when one person gets too far ahead in monopoly and everyone else is just sitting around thinking 'thank god this game is ending soon'?
-
Comment on Are there any games that had their development abandoned that you followed where you wish that continued/completed development? in ~games
Fiachra LinkThat first person shooter game of Stargate sg-1 that was cancelled in the early 00s. Apparently it was in a playable alpha state and everything.That first person shooter game of Stargate sg-1 that was cancelled in the early 00s. Apparently it was in a playable alpha state and everything.
-
Comment on Do we want to stop all crime? in ~society
Fiachra Link ParentIn that case I think the effectiveness of enforcement should be proportional to how certain society at large (a perspective fairly incorporating all groups and demographics somehow) was in that...In that case I think the effectiveness of enforcement should be proportional to how certain society at large (a perspective fairly incorporating all groups and demographics somehow) was in that code of ethics.
-
Comment on Website showing spuriously correlated affects in ~science
Fiachra Link ParentI was thinking more of a correlation that appears absurd on the surface but are causally related through some very unexpected means, like the connection between the size of the space shuttle and...I was thinking more of a correlation that appears absurd on the surface but are causally related through some very unexpected means, like the connection between the size of the space shuttle and the width of an elephant.
-
Comment on Website showing spuriously correlated affects in ~science
Fiachra LinkI really appreciate that the goal of proving correlation != causation could have been demonstrated with like five of these examples but instead the list of stuff they find is absolutely endless....I really appreciate that the goal of proving correlation != causation could have been demonstrated with like five of these examples but instead the list of stuff they find is absolutely endless.
Statistically they must eventually run into one that actually turns out to be causally related.
Side note: The number of printing press operators in Rhode island fluctuates a lot more than I would expect.
-
Comment on People who want less AI are breaking up with Google Search in ~tech
Fiachra Link ParentThey're using the terms "search engine" and "browser" interchangeably is the problem.They're using the terms "search engine" and "browser" interchangeably is the problem.
-
Comment on If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you in ~tech
Fiachra Link ParentSome of the most entertaining stuff I've ever read is from talented writers getting extremely annoyed at something mundane.Some of the most entertaining stuff I've ever read is from talented writers getting extremely annoyed at something mundane.
-
Comment on 'The Boys' has ended. What are your thoughts? in ~tv
Fiachra LinkJust caught up on it last night. The death of Homelander wasn't the emotional culmination I pictured when I watched season 1, but ultimately it was a very unsubtle political screwball black comedy...Just caught up on it last night. The death of Homelander wasn't the emotional culmination I pictured when I watched season 1, but ultimately it was a very unsubtle political screwball black comedy and I enjoyed it for what it was. It didn't let me down the way GoT did.
If I had to script doctor it, I'd say that they fell into the trap of personifying the abstract evil into one evil person and then treating the problem as solved when that person is killed. They gestures at the idea, with Stan Edgar getting back in control of Vought and the whole question of how Ryan might turn out, but in the end the gravitational pull of Homelander pulled in the whole narrative. I would have had Sage's plan to take the White House at the end of season 4 kill Homelander instead of Neumann. So the final-season villain becomes a Vought-controlled White House with Homelander as a martyr, still executing a purge of dissidents.
-
Comment on Everything in ~science
-
Comment on China executes man for murdering prominent gaming tycoon in ~news
Fiachra LinkMan, he threw everything away over one shafting on one business deal. I'm sure there would have been many more. Brings to mind all the advice about suicide, "all your problems are temporary except...Man, he threw everything away over one shafting on one business deal. I'm sure there would have been many more. Brings to mind all the advice about suicide, "all your problems are temporary except one: being guilty of premeditated murder".
-
Comment on What has changed as you've gotten older? in ~talk
Fiachra LinkAs someone who has been very sensitive to rejection, I've accepted that there is no way to avoid being criticised. Sometimes every possible outcome of a decision will get you criticised, sometimes...As someone who has been very sensitive to rejection, I've accepted that there is no way to avoid being criticised.
Sometimes every possible outcome of a decision will get you criticised, sometimes even from the very same person.
People will criticise you when you do a good thing because you didn't spend that time doing an even better thing.
People will criticise you for not doing something "the right way" even if that doesn't work for you.
And even if you hurt nobody and the opportunity cost is zero they can mock you for being cringe or having bad vibes or whatever.
The only way to avoid being criticised is to never do anything or stand for anything, and then even if nobody calls you lazy you will probably judge yourself for that.
So the only way to live is make decisions as best you can and treat judgemental remarks as the cost of doing business, not your fault and not necessarily as mistakes that need rectifying.
-
Comment on The boy that cried Mythos in ~comp
Fiachra Link Parent"Blue WKD has crashed the stock market. Millions will suffer.""Blue WKD has crashed the stock market. Millions will suffer."
I remember them being very good at little setup/payoff moments. For example, I think one of the first fight scenes, Bourne noticed he's being followed, ducks into the aisle of a shop, grabs a bottle of vodka and takes a big slug of it. Wtf? Then the second his pursuer stops him he spits the mouthful of vodka in his eyes and runs.
On a more abstract note, I wonder how many disorders get overrepresented in media just because they happen to suit the needs of storytelling, eg: amnesia handily mirrors how an audience needs to learn things that a character would already know. Multiple personalities is another one, though I hear that gets misrepresented.