FishFingus's recent activity
-
Comment on White House signals defeat in pandemic as coronavirus outbreak roils Pence’s office in ~health.coronavirus
-
Comment on Cyberpunk 2077's dialogue was lip-synced by AI (Technical) in ~tech
FishFingus Link ParentTY, I always enjoy reading more about this game. I'm surprised there aren't more open-world cyberpunk RPGs like it (not turn-based or squad-based), since there's so much you could do with a...TY, I always enjoy reading more about this game. I'm surprised there aren't more open-world cyberpunk RPGs like it (not turn-based or squad-based), since there's so much you could do with a setting like that, but maybe companies don't tend to feel they're up to the challenge. With any luck, the events of the last decade should give them plenty of bangin' inspiration.
-
Comment on Does anyone else here enjoy early Command & Conquer series? in ~games
FishFingus LinkYes, they were my childhood. I never finished them, because they were above my skill level, but I absolutely adored the custom missions. The whole split forces concept of something like Soviet...Yes, they were my childhood. I never finished them, because they were above my skill level, but I absolutely adored the custom missions. The whole split forces concept of something like Soviet Soldier Volkov and Chitzkoi was fantastic, and something I've rarely seen in other strategy games (except maybe Warcraft III or Starcraft 2). I spent so many happy hours engrossed in the editor, making tree mazes and other stuff that didn't translate all that well into good map design.
Oh, and the units. The units! Mammoth tanks, MAD tanks, tesla tanks, shock troops, chrono-tanks, nuke trucks and battleships. What a great roster.
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
FishFingus LinkWell, I tried playing Torment: Tides of Numanuma recently, but managed to get about ten minutes in before the soupy fog of technobabble almost made me audibly say, "Oh my god, I don't care." Quit...Well, I tried playing Torment: Tides of Numanuma recently, but managed to get about ten minutes in before the soupy fog of technobabble almost made me audibly say, "Oh my god, I don't care." Quit and reinstalled Killing Floor 2 instead. That hooked me in again surprisingly quickly considering how long I'd been away. I guess you never get completely tired of shooting things in the face.
It's a shame the weapon packs cost as much as they do, because I really like a nice Mosin-Nagant. Especially when the firing sound has that distinct crack to it. It's as important as the leading edge sound on a Huey.
-
Comment on What are we so afraid of? – Tony Green, on dismissing, denying, contracting and spreading the coronavirus in ~health.coronavirus
FishFingus Link ParentOh, for god's sake. I should've have known that disappointment is a hole with no bottom.Oh, for god's sake. I should've have known that disappointment is a hole with no bottom.
-
Comment on What are we so afraid of? – Tony Green, on dismissing, denying, contracting and spreading the coronavirus in ~health.coronavirus
FishFingus Link ParentI tend to react to stories like this by just rolling my eyes or shaking my head and feeling a little more depressed inside. This one was just sad to me, though. I didn't see either of those in the...I tend to react to stories like this by just rolling my eyes or shaking my head and feeling a little more depressed inside. This one was just sad to me, though.
Doesn't understand his own guilt in it totally AND will vote for Trump.
I didn't see either of those in the article. He says at one point that he feels guilt, embarrassment and shame. I imagine he'll still be feeling it for much of, if not the rest of his life. I didn't see where he says he's going to vote for Trump again, and I'd be surprised if he did.
From the article:
There’s no relief. This virus, I can’t escape it. It’s torn up our family. It’s all over my Facebook. It’s the election. It’s Trump. It’s what I keep thinking about. How many people would have gotten sick if I’d never hosted that weekend? One? Maybe two? The grief comes in waves, but that guilt just sits.
-
Comment on Facebook moderators, working as contractors at Accenture, are being forced to return to the office despite the risk of COVID-19 in ~tech
FishFingus Link ParentI hadn't thought about that. The sort of stuff that moderators of large enough sites might end up seeing is probably exactly the kind of stuff they wouldn't want hanging about on their own...I hadn't thought about that. The sort of stuff that moderators of large enough sites might end up seeing is probably exactly the kind of stuff they wouldn't want hanging about on their own computer. Plus, if they're at home alone, they won't have anyone there to give them a hug or talk them back from the edge. :(
-
Comment on Today I bough some duct tape in ~creative
FishFingus (edited )LinkA lot of people mistakenly think that a single strip of duct tape is enough to make an effective gag. Um...no. When a person starts perspiring, the sweat can cause the flap of tape to come loose....A lot of people mistakenly think that a single strip of duct tape is enough to make an effective gag. Um...no. When a person starts perspiring, the sweat can cause the flap of tape to come loose. They can also just wiggle their lips and poke it loose over time with their tongue. What you really need for a secure gag is a few strips over the mouth and another couple to secure it below the chin - basically a chinstrap.
Thanks, Tumblr. F--k you, Verizon.
-
Comment on FBI busts militia 'plot' to abduct Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in ~news
FishFingus LinkPresident's* response.Trump slammed Whitmer later Thursday in a series of tweets, falsely claiming she called him a "White Supremacist" in her remarks, complaining that she did not thank him and saying she's doing a "terrible job" at governing.
-
Comment on Smart male chastity lock cock-up in ~tech
FishFingus (edited )LinkWell, I wasn't expecting this to get reported on Tildes, though it has certainly made its way around various news sites. A Bluetooth cage is only really interesting in concept; the reality is an...- Exemplary
Well, I wasn't expecting this to get reported on Tildes, though it has certainly made its way around various news sites.
A Bluetooth cage is only really interesting in concept; the reality is an overpriced gimmick. In the case of this model, they also skimped on the build quality, so there were early complaints of them just breaking in the night as the base ring separated from the tube. Trusting a cheap product of this nature from China, beyond just the most basic of metal variants with as few parts as possible, is already asking for trouble; adding IoT to the mix is trouble squared.
EDIT: Also, it's strongly misleading to suggest that anyone stuck in one of those would have to resort to power tools to extricate themselves. The downstairs equipment is surprisingly pliable, and you can certainly pull your twaddle out with the aid of a little soap and water, by pinching on the top near the base. This makes it easier to reshuffle your bollards one by one toward the centre (where the tube/ring gap is at its widest) and pop them up into your body one by one, then slipping out. A bit of an uncomfortable squeeze, but not damaging, and certainly preferable to causing unrefundable destruction or donating bitcoin toward some teenage wanksta's Fortnite fund. Cheaper devices typically also rattle and give a couple of milimetres at the tube/ring gap, giving you more room where every milimetre counts. Finally, the skin down there actually loosens up and drops after prolonged use, which can make slipping in and out a little easier. Everybody's anatomy is different, like snowflakes, so YMMV.
Oh yeah, and Smart? More like Stupid. Hyuck hyuck hyuck.
-
Confessions of NPC torment
Shadow of War keeps crashing on me now, which has provided the inspiration for me to finally sit down and get this off my chesticles. I think bad things happen in my brain when I read the news too...
Shadow of War keeps crashing on me now, which has provided the inspiration for me to finally sit down and get this off my chesticles. I think bad things happen in my brain when I read the news too much or don't get enough exercise.
I remember when tormenting NPCs in games used to make me feel very sad. I was almost driven to tears by the villagers in Black & White being flattened under a carelessly dropped boulder, in fact. Over the years, though, I've found that my capacity for cruelty toward NPCs has grown considerably. I'll give a long example:
In the game *Shadow of War*, you wage a supernatural guerrilla war against orcs in Mordor. While orcs and goblins are usually portrayed in the *The Lord Of The Rings* as being stunted, hobbling little creatures, the kind you face up against are Uruks. A basic distinction between them and ordinary orcs is that Uruks are bigger and nastier. Mordor is crawling with Uruks of various sizes, colours, tribes and fighting styles, and your job is to dominate or kill the toughest of them to rebuild the army of the dark lord in your own image.What sets the Uruks of Middle Earth apart from your typical NPCs, aside from the great variety in their appearance and behaviour, is the superb quality of their voice acting. Each of them has a name that reflects their character or deeds in combat. Each has his own wrestler-like introduction, complete with imaginative threats of violence. They can taunt you one last time on their knees before you deliver the killing blow, they can cheat death to come back scarred and vengeful, they can ambush you and swear they'll make you eat shrakh (they have their own vocabulary too) for killing their blood brother, and they can become increasingly obsessed with you if you either refuse to stay dead...or choose to do what I like to.
You see, you don't always have to kill your prey. In fact, depending on their strengths and weaknesses, that might be strongly against your interests. You're supposed to be rebuilding an army, after all, and for that you need like live soldiers. So while the potential pool of captains is as deep as the infinite birthing vats of Mordor, there are some who will have a special place to you for reasons of their attributes, their fighting style, their level, or even their voice and appearance. Some Uruks sing, some rhyme, some look like cenobites, and still others might communicate like the Martians from Mars Attacks. Once you find a favourite, you can defeat them in combat and then choose to dominate them. At this point, you can recruit them...or you can shame them.
Shaming is a mechanic that will lower an Uruk's level and place a prominent brand of your palm into their face. This can be useful if they have an iron will and you wish to remove that attribute so they can be coaxed into joining your zombie army. However, just as Uruks have a chance to cheat death or betray you, they also have a chance to react strongly to being shamed: they become deranged, losing their mind along with their power level; or they transform into much more powerful maniac.
Finally, on to my tale of the follower who betrayed me and suffered a fate worse than death: being almost the sole object of my attention for an entire evening. I had a rather powerful follower with a suite of deadly abilities in combat, and he was a hoot to watch at work. I sent him to the fighting pit frequently, not so much to level him up as to watch him butcher his optimistic inferiors in a variety of exciting ways. Sadly, this follower eventually died in combat, and I recruited someone else to fill my emotional void. I'd actually forgotten about him until he unexpectedly surfaced in the middle of battle a few hours later, announcing that because I'd left him on the battlefield he was swearing his allegiance to the true dark lord of Team Red. A fight ensued in which I knocked him down to a fraction of health and then dominated and shamed him, before finishing off my other opponent. Not willing to let the matter rest, though, I pursued my erstwhile soldier, marking him down as Priority Uno. Again and again I would find him patrolling some quiet corner of the map and leap down upon him like a spider onto the head of an Australian electrician. After the first few shamings, he was only indignant at the repeated humiliation, but by number four, he was becoming increasingly paranoid that I was a tool sent to test him by the dark powers that ran Mordor. He would yell that this was simple to see, and to tell my infernal masters that he refused to be persecuted like this.
Eventually, after I'd almots shamed him all the way down to level 1, I encountered him sitting quietly on a little mossy bridge and staring blankly into the ravine below. I found it momentarily moving that anywhere within miles of the blasted hellscape of Mordor could present such a remarkably tranquil, pastoral scene. I wondered, from my perch above, what he must have been thinking. Did his heart hang heavy with sadness and regret? Was he building a mental web of the conspiracy in his head? Or was he just thinking that he was so exhausted, and it was such a long way down?
He didn't have long to ponder, because shortly afterward I broke him. I turned my one-time compatriot into a gibbering wreck unable to vocalise words beyond, "It's simple! So simple!" as he stumbled away, quaking, through the undergrowth.
If you thought the story was already bad enough, you should probably stop here. Earlier, I mentioned that the previous captain had ambushed me during combat, and that Uruks have a chance of cheating death. Well, the other captain I was fighting at the time did just that, and was incensed that I'd maimed him. Unfortunately for him, his fighting skills hadn't improved during the mortal interim, and I decided to shame him as well for giving it a second go. He broke a lot quicker, and would do nothing (outside of attacking me) besides giggling like Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise. Once I'd sent him off for the third or fourth time, I was surprised by another orc who raged at me for destroying his blood brother's mind and swore he'd do me in for it. This was quite unusual, as Uruks don't tend to display emotion beyond anger and terror (in that order). I thought for a moment about the fact that I'd taken this Uruk's brother away in a manner far crueller than just outright killing him, and then I shamed him too. Somehow, though, it just wasn't quite as much fun, so I eventually killed him.
In the space of a few idle hours, I had managed to turn a game full of compelling and even charming characters into something more akin to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, then eventually the asylum from Amadeus. It was quite entertaining, in spite of the little melancholic voice in the back of my head, until I inadvertently checked myself in and dissociated entirely. I hope my in-game stats aren't being too closely observed.
So, got any confessions of your own? Is this a potential indicator of psychopathy? How many musically talented Pushkrimps have you recruited?
7 votes -
Comment on Anyone who says tofu is bland or boring hasn’t eaten mapo tofu, the intoxicatingly spicy, fragrant dish from the Sichuan Province of China in ~food
FishFingus Link ParentWooden tubs and bamboo steamers are the way to go. Back when my mum was short, there was a restaurant down the road that would provide lunch for local factory workers, and what they did was take...Wooden tubs and bamboo steamers are the way to go. Back when my mum was short, there was a restaurant down the road that would provide lunch for local factory workers, and what they did was take all the filled bowls and cutlery and wrap them up in a big tablecloth bundle, then carry the lot over to them. So many fun, quirky things that were considered normal that I miss now. Like bamboo scaffolding.
-
Comment on Anyone who says tofu is bland or boring hasn’t eaten mapo tofu, the intoxicatingly spicy, fragrant dish from the Sichuan Province of China in ~food
FishFingus (edited )LinkMy mum is a culinary whiz. She sometimes knocks together this fantastic dish of white rice, chopped chillies and black bean sauce. A fantastic snack or component of a larger ensemble. Tofu is like...My mum is a culinary whiz. She sometimes knocks together this fantastic dish of white rice, chopped chillies and black bean sauce. A fantastic snack or component of a larger ensemble. Tofu is like rice. Not much on its own, but so good when you use other ingredients to get the most out of it.
EDIT: There's also douhua, which is a delicious dessert or snack of soft tofu pudding. There used to sometimes be an elderly gentleman who would wheel a bicycle around our housing estate and bellow "DOUHUAAA!", and we'd rush downstairs to buy a couple of styrofoam tubs of it. It was delicious with sugary syrup, though I'm sure it's eaten lots of other ways.
-
Comment on Minecraft's Steve, Alex, Enderman and Zombie join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in ~games
FishFingus LinkThis seems like something that would have been really neato for the kids...almost a decade ago. Still, I guess it's pretty cool for them and all; it just seems really late in the day.This seems like something that would have been really neato for the kids...almost a decade ago. Still, I guess it's pretty cool for them and all; it just seems really late in the day.
-
Comment on Cyberpunk 2077 publisher orders six-day weeks ahead of launch in ~games
FishFingus Link ParentWell, I imagine that the 3rd-person will be modded back in. Eventually. Hopefully. Maybe that' something they're counting on, and might try to add it later. Also, the only movement mechanic I know...Well, I imagine that the 3rd-person will be modded back in. Eventually. Hopefully. Maybe that' something they're counting on, and might try to add it later. Also, the only movement mechanic I know of being removed was wall-running. I can imagine that really messing with places like the mega-apartment building they showed in the gameplay showcase.
-
Comment on Why some people change their wallpaper/profile picture more than others ? in ~talk
FishFingus LinkI keep my profile picture mostly the same nowadays. Not sure when I made the change or why, but I like to just pick something sufficiently funny/weird and stick with it. Some sort of psychological...I keep my profile picture mostly the same nowadays. Not sure when I made the change or why, but I like to just pick something sufficiently funny/weird and stick with it. Some sort of psychological shift occurred.
As for my background, that's where I tend to get more easily bored. I set up a folder with pics of interesting tank or plane models from War Thunder, and I get a new one every 10 minutes. Last one was the Landsverk Lago I, and now it's the Landsverk U-SH 405. Think of a bigger version of that mouse droid from Star Wars, with twin rocket launchers on the roof.
-
Comment on What 'still/currently/actively in development' games are you following? in ~games
FishFingus LinkI've been following Spacebase Startopia, because I enjoyed the game to which it is meant to be a spiritual successor. I was never all that good at it, I just enjoyed it. Great concept and humour,...I've been following Spacebase Startopia, because I enjoyed the game to which it is meant to be a spiritual successor. I was never all that good at it, I just enjoyed it. Great concept and humour, reminded me of Dungeon Keeper 2. I hope the successor retains all those good bits.
-
Comment on On chicken tenders in ~food
FishFingus Link ParentYeah, I'm in the UK. It could be, then, that all the turkeys they sell in supermarkets here are just pretty bland. It's also difficult to find a place here that serves burgers or poultry that...Yeah, I'm in the UK. It could be, then, that all the turkeys they sell in supermarkets here are just pretty bland. It's also difficult to find a place here that serves burgers or poultry that aren't bland and dry. The best chicken I ever had was from a kebab place down in London. Thank goodness for immigrants, or the food here would be preeeeeeeeeeetty baaaaad.
-
Comment on On chicken tenders in ~food
FishFingus Link ParentI was about to agree, but what about turkey? That's the most flavourless meat I think I've ever had. Even my mum, who is a culinary sorceror, uses the gravy, stuffing, cranberries,...I was about to agree, but what about turkey? That's the most flavourless meat I think I've ever had. Even my mum, who is a culinary sorceror, uses the gravy, stuffing, cranberries, pigs-in-blankets and chestnuts to spice it up. These years we've switched to lamb for the holidays instead, since it's much nicer either hot or cold. Cold lamb sandwiches are so good in the evening when you're too plastered to cook.
-
Comment on DeJoy tells judge mail-sorting machines can’t be reassembled in ~news
FishFingus Link ParentMmm...thanks. I think I gave in to despair at some point during that vent. I feel so tired, I bet I could sleep like a log for about 12 hours straight. It's probably about time for me to take...Mmm...thanks. I think I gave in to despair at some point during that vent. I feel so tired, I bet I could sleep like a log for about 12 hours straight. It's probably about time for me to take another Reddit detox.
Good luck, people. Get out there and vote; you might never forgive yourself if you don't.
If you've never seen The Great Dictator, there may be no better time.