Flashfall's recent activity

  1. Comment on How do you find new anime to watch? in ~anime

    Flashfall
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    For new stuff, I check what's coming out next season on Myanimelist and see if there's anything that seems interesting to me. There's also a few anime youtubers that I watch from time to time...

    For new stuff, I check what's coming out next season on Myanimelist and see if there's anything that seems interesting to me. There's also a few anime youtubers that I watch from time to time whose tastes align pretty well with mine, so if they put out a video recommending something I'm not already watching, I'll probably give that a watch too. Shoutout to Demolition D, I know he basically quit uploading years ago but he got me to watch Ping Pong and I will always be grateful to him for that. Shame we'll never get that Angel's Egg review though.

    4 votes

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

    Flashfall
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    The sequel to Last Order started? I don't even remember when Mars Chronicle ended and this is the first I've heard of more Gunnm since then so that's a welcome surprise.

    The sequel to Last Order started? I don't even remember when Mars Chronicle ended and this is the first I've heard of more Gunnm since then so that's a welcome surprise.

    1 vote

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

    Flashfall
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    Started playing Icarus again with my friend, we grabbed the latest expansion and as per usual with almost every survival crafting game we play I've focused a ton on just building up the base as...

    Started playing Icarus again with my friend, we grabbed the latest expansion and as per usual with almost every survival crafting game we play I've focused a ton on just building up the base as fast as possible while keeping things neat and aesthetic. It really is one of the best survival crafting games currently out and still getting updates, with a somehow minimal amount of jank and clunkiness. The one thing it doesn't do is have a shared inventory across workbenches and storage, which is an incredible quality-of-life feature that most other survival crafting games nowadays either have by default or let you upgrade towards. As such, I've just got materials stashed in every workbench and it's a bit messy but still pretty functional.

    2 votes

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

    Flashfall
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    This is kind of true, but once you've gotten familiar with the game the differences aren't just apparent, they're actually tremendous. Every class plays VERY differently depending on how you build...

    The differences don't become hugely apparent until you have a lot of hours in the game.

    This is kind of true, but once you've gotten familiar with the game the differences aren't just apparent, they're actually tremendous. Every class plays VERY differently depending on how you build it out, and there's multiple ways to build each class that also play very differently. Sure, some weapons are shared a lot between different classes but what they can do with them changes quite a bit.

    As for the currencies, there's really only three that matter. Dockets are used for the shop and upgrades. Plasteel and diamantine are both used exclusively for upgrades. The "ingots" (everyone just calls them melk bucks) are mostly obsolete since there's no reason to check that shop once they added the ability to freely change perks and weapon talents. "Aquilas" are for the cash shop but it's terribly designed so I've never even considered buying anything form it.

    I've got some 760 hours in the game according to steam and I'm still a rank amateur compared to the more veteran players, so there's an absurd amount of room for skill expression and growth.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Who likes GTA? in ~games

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    I like shooters, I don't dislike third-person, I enjoy open worlds, I do play minigames, and I put a pretty good amount of time into GTA V and had fun. Logically, I know I will enjoy GTA VI and...

    I like shooters, I don't dislike third-person, I enjoy open worlds, I do play minigames, and I put a pretty good amount of time into GTA V and had fun. Logically, I know I will enjoy GTA VI and probably sink a lot of time into that too, though I'll stay away from the online stuff this time. The thing is though, I also enjoy so many other games that aren't just GTA and I am fortunate to have the spare cash and time to actually buy and play multiple games a year (as they come out, not simultaneously), so my excitement for GTA VI is just about "nice, looks good". I'll get it when it comes to PC, in the meantime I have plenty of other high quality titles to be excited for.

    1 vote

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

    Flashfall
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    The Ghost in the Shell always covered a lot of philosophical topics that made you think about what it really means to be human or alive, or what is a human soul, or "ghost", and episodes 7 and 8...

    The Ghost in the Shell always covered a lot of philosophical topics that made you think about what it really means to be human or alive, or what is a human soul, or "ghost", and episodes 7 and 8 are just laying it on thick, like peanut butter without oil thick. Some really beautiful and symbolic visuals in these episodes, and also Batou being goofy and badass.

    5 votes

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

    Flashfall
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    It's always nice to see a new Made in Abyss chapter, just gotta brace myself a bit for the author's fetish each time but the copious amounts of round fluff make up for it. We've gotten 3 chapters...

    It's always nice to see a new Made in Abyss chapter, just gotta brace myself a bit for the author's fetish each time but the copious amounts of round fluff make up for it. We've gotten 3 chapters this year now, which feels like a good pace to me since I'm also following Berserk and Hunter x Hunter (though Togashi's been in slightly better health lately and putting out new chapters somewhat regularly, bless him). Since the plan for the anime going forward is apparently just movies, we should have enough story material between now and the end of season 2 for one? Not sure I'm brave enough to see it in person if it does come to US theatres though.

    2 votes

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

    Flashfall
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    Honestly with how dense the vegetation is visually now, I'm not sure there's many places on the map with 100m of visibility. A lot of the jank has been fixed for sure, and performance is pretty...

    Honestly with how dense the vegetation is visually now, I'm not sure there's many places on the map with 100m of visibility. A lot of the jank has been fixed for sure, and performance is pretty stable though I still can't go higher than medium with just a 3070 and get solid 60fps. Now is the best time to get into the game again.

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

    Flashfall
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    Mostly done with my Warhammer 40,000: Darktide class penance spree, with all done excluding one or two for zealot and arbitrator (not because they're less fun, some penances are just really...

    Mostly done with my Warhammer 40,000: Darktide class penance spree, with all done excluding one or two for zealot and arbitrator (not because they're less fun, some penances are just really grindy). There's currently an event going on where there's a mission modifier that just sends trash enemies non-stop at you and personally I'm enjoying the higher killcounts and lower action downtime, but it's not as great for builds focused more on special/elite hunting with less horde-clearing power.

    Also started a fresh playthrough of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Master difficulty to experience update 2.0 and the Cost of Hope DLC in full. There's been a good number of positive changes with this update, from improved lighting and vegetation to the addition of binoculars and NVGs (crazy that we didn't have these at launch), and some new weapons too. Haven't gotten very far in the DLC story itself yet but the Iron Forest has some cool spooky vibes so far, and the characters seem decently written and voiced. As for Master difficulty, the economy's crap and it can be annoying to die and have to start again from a save 10-20 minutes ago since you can only manually save at hub locations, but as a seasoned stalker I know a few tricks to get good gear for cheap or free which lets me overlook the awful prices of everything. Protip, get your hands on a shotgun that can hold more than 2 shells ASAP. I personally recommend heading straight to Rostok right after you can leave the Lesser Zone, the Arena is great for getting a head start on money and gear.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food

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    I saw this video for making an easy michelin star quality apple tarte tatin so I bought some puff pastry and apples to give it a shot. I used a small ramekin instead of a pot or pan since I don't...

    I saw this video for making an easy michelin star quality apple tarte tatin so I bought some puff pastry and apples to give it a shot. I used a small ramekin instead of a pot or pan since I don't have any with oven-safe handles, and it took 2 failures to dial in the time and temp to work with my oven. The third and final try still wasn't as caramellized as it was in the video, but still turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

    I have just rewatched the video and realized that he specified 160 degrees Celcius, while my initial two tries were done in Fahrenheit. Makes a lot more sense in hindsight but oh well, I'll get it right next time.

    Still had some puff pastry leftover from that, so I made a chicken pot pie with just a top crust (puff pastry gets all soggy on the bottom). Wild how much it adds to the dish despite being just flaky butter bread, both taste and appearance wise. I should buy puff pastry more often.

  11. Comment on A simple fix for exemplary tags - only give it to posts you disagree with in ~tildes

    Flashfall
    Link Parent
    Well that's news to me, I guess I haven't tagged anything as Exemplary yet then. It seems like making that response visible to everyone and not just the author would be the next logical step, if...

    Well that's news to me, I guess I haven't tagged anything as Exemplary yet then. It seems like making that response visible to everyone and not just the author would be the next logical step, if we did feel like we needed one extra thing for people to consider before tagging. With the size and relatively high level of respect (for an internet forum) of this community though, I don't think that change should be needed anytime soon.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on A simple fix for exemplary tags - only give it to posts you disagree with in ~tildes

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    While I don't disagree that exemplary tags being used just for posts or comments you agree with is the wrong way to use them, I'm wondering if their "misuse" has gotten to the point where it's...

    While I don't disagree that exemplary tags being used just for posts or comments you agree with is the wrong way to use them, I'm wondering if their "misuse" has gotten to the point where it's potentially problematic enough that we need to agree on an unspoken community rule about them. My anecdotal experience isn't worth much as I haven't been going through all of the threads and seeing if comments with exemplary tags are meeting some arbitrary criteria, and I personally rarely even upvote comments, much less tag them as exemplary, but exemplary tags never seemed nearly as problematic or pervasive as, say, giving gold to a comment or post.

    Just downplaying your concerns while offering no solutions of my own would be a bit of a dick move, so here's my suggestion: labeling a comment should also require you to reply to it, so some modicum of thought and effort must be put in at least. I wouldn't go so far as to highlight the user that actually gave the label since we probably don't want to reduce the amount of anonymity we currently have, but if you're the first or only one to reply then it wouldn't take a genius to connect the dots. With an upfront requirement like this though, it encourages the one giving out the label to provide context to it, and other users won't get into a virtual slap-fight with each other when someone inevitably uses it the "wrong" way according to them.

    7 votes

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

    Flashfall
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    Started and caught up with Sayonara, Lara in the last week and this has immediately jumped into my seasonal top 3. It's an original story made to celebrate the 15th anniversary of studio Kinema...

    Started and caught up with Sayonara, Lara in the last week and this has immediately jumped into my seasonal top 3. It's an original story made to celebrate the 15th anniversary of studio Kinema Citrus, and it's an original adaptation of The Little Mermaid. It's a huge love letter to 80's and 90's anime, where it's done digitally but made to imitate celluloid animation and the character designs also match that era. The story's easy to understand, the characters are all distinct and likeable without being suffocating coughkyoanicough, the opening is lovely and also has a nostalgic feel, and the whole package is just really charming. Strongly recommend if you like character-driven stories with a bit of romance.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Google Assistant shutting down on Android and Wear OS in September in ~tech

    Flashfall
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    Yeah this is just an annoying change for me. First they ruin my pixel buds by outright disabling assistant on those when they were initially phasing in Gemini (thought that got me to look for...

    Yeah this is just an annoying change for me. First they ruin my pixel buds by outright disabling assistant on those when they were initially phasing in Gemini (thought that got me to look for higher quality IEMs than Google was offering so blessing in disguise?), now I can't even use assistant to do the purely deterministic simple tasks that I was using it for previously? One of these recent updates for my Pixel switched Gemini on by default and I had to go out of my way to switch assistant back on instead because I didn't want a voice to tell me everything it was doing every time I just want to turn on the lights in the living room, and there's no option to mute Gemini for some godforsaken reason.

    I just want a voice activated remote control, is that so much to ask for? Why does it have to come with the acceleration of human misery?

    5 votes

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

    Flashfall
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    Caught up with The Ghost in the Shell (2026) and these latest episodes also cover the chapters that were adapted by the Mamoru Oshii movies. It's neat to see which parts of the original work that...

    Caught up with The Ghost in the Shell (2026) and these latest episodes also cover the chapters that were adapted by the Mamoru Oshii movies. It's neat to see which parts of the original work that Oshii chose to keep while adding quite a bit of his own touch to give it a much darker, grittier tone. I wouldn't say that one is better than the other, but the differences that are there are so massive that it's hard to even call it an adaptation, more like an alternate timeline take. Still thoroughly enjoyed it, but I was a bit sad that I didn't get to see Batou go on a rampage through the gynoid factory in this art style.

    4 votes

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

    Flashfall
    Link Parent
    Well see that's probably the biggest issue. By "3rd difficulty option" I assume you mean Heresy, first and second being Uprising and Malice (Sedition difficulty seems to have been removed...

    Mind you I've yet to play the 3rd difficulty option, but we will try soon with my group.

    Well see that's probably the biggest issue. By "3rd difficulty option" I assume you mean Heresy, first and second being Uprising and Malice (Sedition difficulty seems to have been removed altogether at some point, I guess the devs thought it was too easy?). The amount of experience and resources you gain increases a fair bit from going from Malice to Heresy, and then it jumps even more from Heresy to Damnation. If you have the skill and acceptably usable weapons to move to the next difficulty once you unlock it, leveling from 1 to 30 is actually pretty fast, maybe a day or two at most, and at damnation it's not unusual to get a few hundred plasteel and diamantine on each mission as long as folks remember to pick them up.

    Also something very important about spending resources for gear and upgrades at Hadron - doing so before hitting level 30 is usually a waste, because the gear level in rewards and the shop goes up as you level up more. You can still buy a weapon to have one to use in the meantime, but don't invest heavily into anything until you hit the level cap. You may also want to look up what the "dump stat" for your weapon is, as well as the recommended perks and blessings, so you don't waste resources on a poorly rolled weapon and don't spend extra dockets switching perks and blessings around. Same thing for curios, just get 3 cheap toughness curios until you hit level 30, then look for ones with 16 or 17% toughness to keep and upgrade.

    Mortis Trials is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it's purposely imbalanced with how it'll throw silly amounts of a single enemy type at you. On the other hand some of the modifiers it can give you will give you stupid amounts of killing power you can't get in the other game modes. It's not really meant for newer players though, more of a randomizer mode to spice things up for folks that want a change of pace. Also a fantastic way to farm penances, but again that's very much a thing just for experienced players.

    1 vote

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

    Flashfall
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    Aside from the occasional Destiny 2 dungeon or raid with my clan, I've been playing a lot of Warhammer 40K: Darktide to complete all of the class penances (achievements) and weapon masteries. I'm...

    Aside from the occasional Destiny 2 dungeon or raid with my clan, I've been playing a lot of Warhammer 40K: Darktide to complete all of the class penances (achievements) and weapon masteries. I'm playing the classes in the reverse order I made characters for them, so it's like going back in time. So far, I've finished all of the weapons and most of the penances for Skitarius, Hive Scum, Arbitrator, and Ogryn, which just leaves Veteran, Zealot, and Psyker. This is what's stood out to me so far:

    • The penances for DLC characters were A LOT quicker to finish than the Ogryn's were. Either Fatshark figured they didn't want penances to take as long for paid characters, or they realized the penances for the original classes were just way overtuned in terms of how much you needed, or they learned how to create penances that you'd finish reasonably quickly through just regular play.

    • Ogryns are an incredibly strong class, and I actually prefer them over arbitrators. They won't be deleting monstrosities in one hit or melting everything in sight with low effort but they can still dish it out and take it like nothing else.

    • Trappers are bullshit and they shouldn't be allowed to shoot while behind other enemies.

    • The drip options for base classes you can unlock for free are actually pretty good, which is nice because I hate this game's paid cosmetic store and will never spend any money there. The drip options for the DLC classes are basically nonexistent though, paid or otherwise, and that's kinda sad.

    Veteran and Zealot will be interesting to finish since I've never used the stealth skills on either of them despite having almost 700 hours in the game. This really is the most replayable horde shooter in terms of build variety and skill expression, bar none.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on What are your favourite anime and/or manga? in ~anime

    Flashfall
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    OddTaxi, Spice and Wolf, Rakugo Shinju, and Ping Pong all on the same list that isn't mine? You have exceptionally good taste. If you haven't already seen them, I can recommend these to you:...

    OddTaxi, Spice and Wolf, Rakugo Shinju, and Ping Pong all on the same list that isn't mine? You have exceptionally good taste. If you haven't already seen them, I can recommend these to you:

    • Sangatsu no Lion (2 seasons)
    • Uchuu Kyoudai (like 100 episodes but really good)
    • Houseki no Kuni (read the manga after you finish the anime, s2 probably not happening)
    • Mob Psycho 100 (3 seasons)
    • Medalist (2 seasons)
    • Yuri!!! on Ice
    • Nippon Sangoku
    • Uchouten Kazoku (2 seasons)
    • Shiroi Suna no Aquatope
    • Hyouka
    • Mahoutsukai no Yome (2 long seasons)

    And if you enjoy a calming, slow-paced iyashikei show here or there, try these:

    • Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (just 2 OVAs)
    • Hakumei to Mikochi
    2 votes

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

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    Don't think I'll do a week-by-week update on all the stuff I'm following unless I come across something particularly intriguing in that week's episode. With that said: Yani Neko continues to...

    Don't think I'll do a week-by-week update on all the stuff I'm following unless I come across something particularly intriguing in that week's episode. With that said:

    Yani Neko continues to surprise both in how low it makes its characters go, and also how random some of the bits are. It just randomly name-dropped a niche manga that I really enjoyed and that was a total mental flashbang. Still have no idea how this got greenlit and has so much talent behind it but thanks I guess.

    Finished the spinoff season of Ousama Ranking, Yuuki no Takarabako, which was only 10 episodes long and focused on other events happening during the course of the main story that really flesh out some of the characters. Huge positive energy in it just like the previous season, and another banger of an opening too. Not sure when we'll get a second season but I'm looking forward to it.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech

    Flashfall
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    I work in a pretty new AI tech division of a fairly non-tech company, and a lot of the people around me (in spirit anyway, it's a remote team) are extremely hard working and genuinely seem to...

    I work in a pretty new AI tech division of a fairly non-tech company, and a lot of the people around me (in spirit anyway, it's a remote team) are extremely hard working and genuinely seem to enjoy or at least have great interest in the work they do; they keep up with the latest developments, attend talks and stuff like that, and are excited to share things they learn. I uh, I really don't give a shit. I probably should, I'm pretty young and early in my career and if I did care more it would probably lead to greater growth and pay, but I just really do not care. I don't hate it, and I do have a tech background so I'm not entirely unfamiliar, but the ONLY reason I am doing this job is for the solid pay and good benefits. I do not do tech related stuff in my free time to build more skills, I play games and watch shows like the common consumer sheep. I do my job and I do it to the standard it should be done, and if I'm asked to do a bit more then I do that, maybe I'll spend some time after hours to finish something I'm stuck on (it's remote so it's barely an issue for me honestly).

    Point being, my work life and my personal life are somehow very separate from each other but it works and I'm not particuarly keen on disrupting that balance. I like to think I'm part of a silent majority but I'll never know because usually people that are satisfied don't feel the need to talk about it.

    8 votes