Reapy's recent activity
-
Comment on The 2025 Steam Winter Sale is live (runs Dec 18 - Jan 5) in ~games
-
Comment on Gift recommendations in ~life
Reapy Link ParentYou might enjoy this podcast, Designer Notes by Soren Johnson, who worked at firaxis and was the lead dev on one of the civs (I forget which) before going on to make his own independent games, I...You might enjoy this podcast, Designer Notes by Soren Johnson, who worked at firaxis and was the lead dev on one of the civs (I forget which) before going on to make his own independent games, I think their current game is old world. He has a really, really long interview with Sid Meier in early episodes that probably covers a lot of what is in the book, but is great to hear the info from sid himself, really great insight on a lot of things back then.
He also has some episodes with jake solomon (of xcom fame) that are just as good, covering jake's early time starting as a jr dev with sid at firaxis, it was just as interesting hearing his point of view on everything.
In general, I love the people he sits down to talk with and it is super nostalgic and insightful when he gets guests that were working in the games industry through the 90s as well as just great talks about game design in general. Highly recommend!
-
Comment on Gift recommendations in ~life
Reapy Link ParentI've suggested ember as gifts for people for a while now, it really is something you would look at and just not spend 100+ dollars on a coffee mug, however, if one landed in your lap for free, you...I've suggested ember as gifts for people for a while now, it really is something you would look at and just not spend 100+ dollars on a coffee mug, however, if one landed in your lap for free, you would use it every day. If your price points are around there for a gift, it's a pretty good one.
I think sometimes the best gifts are really something a person could practically use, but never purchase on their own, either due to cost, not knowing about it, or being just superfluous due to say having an adjacent tool already. So for example the can opener listed above, people definitely have a can opener in their house, but maybe not one like that one, they might have seen the can opener but chose not to purchase it due to already having a functioning can opener, even though this one might be better in different situations.
I've had a lot of luck giving gifts over the year trying to follow that philosophy.
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentThe gallery was rough, I played streaming it to a friend and we managed to sucker his wife into looking at the pictures and she ended up solving them for us luckily, so we looked them up too hehehThe gallery was rough, I played streaming it to a friend and we managed to sucker his wife into looking at the pictures and she ended up solving them for us luckily, so we looked them up too heheh
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentDo yourself a favor and run a wiki or note taking app that you can screenshot and paste straight into it as you are playing. Keep the notes by room name to organize it so you can reference it...Do yourself a favor and run a wiki or note taking app that you can screenshot and paste straight into it as you are playing. Keep the notes by room name to organize it so you can reference it later. I have not taken notes for years in a game but I happily did it for blue prince and it payed off greatly. This is the kind of game where searching for hints online can accidently wreck puzzles and the joy of discovering new things, so we have to do it the old school way for the most enjoyment.
-
Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
Reapy Link ParentI have been coding for about 20 years myself and I also agree the stuff I see from just chatting with the AI is pretty good. A big part of it is that probably everything i learned and coded in the...I have been coding for about 20 years myself and I also agree the stuff I see from just chatting with the AI is pretty good. A big part of it is that probably everything i learned and coded in the first 10 years of my career is not even used anymore or the processes have evolved so much at this point it might as well be another language.
I've been learning a lot of python this year starting to use AI more to ask it questions. I self taught myself python a few years back and so I got a broad overview of the language, but ultimately settled in on my solutions to problems. If I had a function or way of doing something that I researched and is working well, I just use that forever as long as it is applicable. I don't engage with developer social networks (I generally have found them unpleasant in the past) so don't have a finger on the pulse of the industry at large. I work at a mid to small sized company for a long while so once again there aren't a lot of people around unearthing new things.
All this is to say is that as time goes on I get better as I solve problems on some specific things, but my knowledge as a whole doesn't really improve. Since I started asking AI questions about things I've learned a good amount of things each day that I didn't know existed, or, didn't know how to apply it to my work. When the AI shows me something new I find myself going off on mini learning trips to see if I want to use the thing or not, what it does, how it works etc. It is very relevant to what my mind is working on and so the lessons stick a lot more too.
The other thing people don't mention is that if I have a task in another programming language, rather than needing a week or so to learn the language, with AI I can assume some basic understanding greater than my own and so can lean on it to learn specifically what I need to do rather than broadly learning the language and figuring it out on my own.
I think LLMs have some deficiencies for sure, but they are really amazing search engines through our language and it would be foolish imho to dismiss their practical uses just because business is businessing and over promising/hyping them up.
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentI have a second to write some more finally and just wanted lore dump about mech warrior since it's kind of a meaningful game franchise to me the more I think about it. We had on the original EGA...I have a second to write some more finally and just wanted lore dump about mech warrior since it's kind of a meaningful game franchise to me the more I think about it. We had on the original EGA mechwarrior on our PC but I really didn't understand what was going on with it as I was pretty young, I only got pulled in on the fact that I could shoot of the limbs of the bad guys which was really cool tech at the time. We also had some of those older EGA battletech turn based games but I think I didn't quite understand them at all.
But then with mech warrior 2, I was I guess 15/16ish, freshly playing games online (on kali), and mech warrior 2 hit like a truck. It was so captivating and amazing. We never got any of the 3dfx in the house so I only looked at the magazine pictures and drooled at what could be. But I remember on a weekend I decided to open up the lore section of mech 2 and was completely captivated by all of the lore.
I tried to play mechwarrior 2 online but latency was so bad on modems that the strategy was shooting the air around the opponent and looking for where they actually were based on how much lag the two of us had, not very fun.
I played mechwarrior 3 and had a little fun but I believe I was early in college now and caught up with some other things. By the time mechwarrior 4 rolled around I would say this is the one I spent the most time on. I really enjoyed the change to hardpoint loadouts for the design system as it gave each mech a lot of identity and they had fully working multiplayer, which I had eagerly been waiting for.
Unfortunately it turned out that I didn't really enjoy it! Strategies involved jump sniping, staring at a building and popping up, alpha strike then back down, or, hill humping, which was the same thing, stare at the back of a hill, pop out, alpha, then go back. I had even joined a few clans and tried some organized matches, but to be honest the people I was with were not the best, getting really angry while playing, so that spoiled it a bit, but even then I was unfortunately not finding the 1st person gameplay compelling.
So then we have a long stretch of time I didn't engage with the franchise. I did not want to get involved with MWO as I had already determined I don't like online PVP in mechs. When I did hear about MW5, I was able to play some good co op with a friend through the SP and had a bit of fun with it, but still the action gameplay didn't feel very engaging to me.
At long last we get a kickstarter for battletech. I was so excited for it, and everything they did with it was just what I was looking for. In my mind I find the mech design, combat system ( armor systems, hardpoints, heat management, weapon designs etc) and economy management as the compelling parts of it. Placing the cursor on a slow moving object and alphastriking while you stare at a wall is not very. However in the turn based hiding behind a hill and playing radar tag feel much more engaging, as well as lance composition and trying to kill with the least damage etc.
But the performance, especially at release, was atrocious. Just going through the menus had long stretches of pausing. I remember putting the game down until they fixed it because I didn't want to start feeling negatively about it. A lot of time passed and I did finally revisit it, along with some of the amazing mods people had made by then.
With it fully modded out the game feels like the perfect battletech game, except, the performance. I remember it just taking way too long and being way too tedious to make it through a map. It's been a bit since I have had it installed but I remember reluctantly shelving it wishing that someone could just optimize what is already there and get the AI and turns to be a bit more snappy to resolve things.
Then we get to the collapse of harebrained Shcemes, the last articles I see were the company was working battletech 2, but got told no by Paradox to work instead on a game they would trash before release and basically fired everyone.
This is so typically mechwarrior/battletech that after like 30 years of this shit I am not surprised anymore. The IP has always been in some sort of ownership dispute hell, certain mechs owned by different people and companies at other times, it's a disaster to put it all together. I really though hairbrained had it for battletech but seems like once again it's in limbo and no battletech game for us. Luckly I don't plan to die anytime soon so I'm sure in the next 2 decades we may see one!
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentBattletech was such a nice surprise to get, but I was sad to not see a sequel anywhere in sight. As you said the game was plauged with issues but the IP is just so compelling. I personally don't...Battletech was such a nice surprise to get, but I was sad to not see a sequel anywhere in sight. As you said the game was plauged with issues but the IP is just so compelling. I personally don't like mechwarrior style gameplay as much as I used to back in the day and strongly prefer the tabletop version of it. A battletech to play that is as buttery smooth as say fire emblem would be amazing. Maybe in another decade or so...
-
Comment on Tildes, I need your advice. Looking for Nintendo Switch 1 and NS2 games. in ~games
Reapy LinkMy kids really like fire emblem three houses. It did take me playing it in front of them but both eventually got very hooked on it and have done multiple play through over the years. They play on...My kids really like fire emblem three houses. It did take me playing it in front of them but both eventually got very hooked on it and have done multiple play through over the years. They play on easy / causal so they can get OP and play though the story. They early high school and late middle school ages, but have played it for a while. Maybe just that I was always so hyped up to play but they have taken the ball and run with the game for years so it had something appealing to both of them, may be worth a shot.
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentStarted back in on POE2 as well. I had skipped .2 but the features from .3 got me to want to get back in. I'm still mid act 2 as I haven't had a lot of time, but I really like the sprint mechanic...Started back in on POE2 as well. I had skipped .2 but the features from .3 got me to want to get back in. I'm still mid act 2 as I haven't had a lot of time, but I really like the sprint mechanic and am re-enjoying the game again. I don't know that I will want to work on any maps through the end game and am more setting a goal for myself to see the new act and interludes.
Overall i think the last epoch philosophy is more up my alleyway, but it just doesn't have enough content to grab me for very long yet. POE2's campaign is really great, the set pieces, voice acting, and overall graphic quality is peak. I'm going to see how the asyc trading works for me. I disliked trading heavily in poe, but even with the fix in general I'd rather play the game to get things rather than browse lists of items. Had much better time getting currency in the kingsmarch poe 1 with the marketplace, but hated the act of finding things to spend it on and quit.
I'm dreading the upcoming trials mechanics as I see they haven't changed much since .1. I was big fan of the lab even though I sort of hated doing it as I'm a player prone to making big mistakes and disliking timeloss. I liked the idea of sanctum in POE1 but as side content you could choose to engage with if you felt like it, not as a major wall for getting ascendancies.
All in all I'm very excited for POE2 still and looking forward to them filling out all the missing skills and classes as well as finishing off the acts, they are hugely fun to play through as they are right now, and the moment to moment action is great IMHO.
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentIt's been a bit but I think at least from my recollection that I really liked dark souls 3 as the game that fulfilled the 'dark souls' vision for me. Most of the aspects of it fell filled out an...It's been a bit but I think at least from my recollection that I really liked dark souls 3 as the game that fulfilled the 'dark souls' vision for me. Most of the aspects of it fell filled out an developed, systems made sense, there felt like very little jank through the game. It doesn't have that really cool tight map of dark souls 1, but it is close enough to feel good.
Even with elden ring I feel like there were some things about it that I didn't like, and I found the open world in it just not a great open world. I realized in elden ring that I much preferred the set pieces and discovering all the little traps and surprises along the way as you wound down into the bowls of some level.
Sekiero is well defined on what it wants to be as well and is a great experience. I have not been able to get myself to play through sekiero multiple times though, it felt a little challenging to relearn all the bosses, however I have been able to get through dark souls 3 a few times due to being able to level up past difficulty if wanted.
Overall great games, not sure if you had played them, but I feel like 3 was a great culmination of the dark souls formula.
-
Comment on What's your current PC wallpaper? in ~tech
Reapy Link ParentI haven't found a good wallpaper site like wallhaven for straight ease of browsing. I'm always running ad block so not sure if ad free. Generally I just set to my desktop resolution and sort by...I haven't found a good wallpaper site like wallhaven for straight ease of browsing. I'm always running ad block so not sure if ad free. Generally I just set to my desktop resolution and sort by toplists, if I see a game I like or something I'll search in its hashtag sometimes. The images just go right into standard windows folder and I point windows at the folder.
I tried wallpaper engine a while back but I feel like I had some issues where I might have pulled down something that messed my pc up and didn't want to deal with learning the ins and outs to deal with it. I've been very happy with resolution matched images that rotate every now and then
-
Comment on What's your current PC wallpaper? in ~tech
Reapy Link ParentThis is me. Every few months I go to wallhaven and browse around for stuff then chuck it in the gallery folder. When I start seeing pictures that do nothing for me I'll go trim the folder down....This is me. Every few months I go to wallhaven and browse around for stuff then chuck it in the gallery folder. When I start seeing pictures that do nothing for me I'll go trim the folder down.
Mostly my pictures are what you mentioned and a lot of game stuff in there too depending what I can find. At work I have a few gaming landscape shots so it's kinda game but still work neutral.
-
Comment on Always invest in good tires in ~transport
Reapy Link ParentGrew up in Massachusetts here and when we had the snow tires on it was a huge difference, of course back then I had to drive into work and visit my girlfriend even in bad weather like an idiot. No...Grew up in Massachusetts here and when we had the snow tires on it was a huge difference, of course back then I had to drive into work and visit my girlfriend even in bad weather like an idiot. No snow tires and you could feel the car about to break loose at low speeds, snow tires and you almost didn't realize you were on unplowed roads.
-
Comment on Gamescom 2025 megathread in ~games
Reapy LinkI haven't made my way through all the previews yet but poe 2 had their new season announcement and got me hyped up again, lot of posative seeming changes. Finally npc offline trading, I'll...I haven't made my way through all the previews yet but poe 2 had their new season announcement and got me hyped up again, lot of posative seeming changes. Finally npc offline trading, I'll actually get involved with it now.
-
Comment on The web could be so much more beautiful in ~tech
Reapy LinkI don't know if I am an outlier, but I hate justified text with every fiber of my being. Splitting words with hyphens on separate lines and random levels of spacing between words makes it...I don't know if I am an outlier, but I hate justified text with every fiber of my being. Splitting words with hyphens on separate lines and random levels of spacing between words makes it incredibly difficult to read. Justification I felt has been solved technically for years, I just assumed we all decided that it was frustrating to read. I've always avoided using justified text my entire life for these reasons.
Anyway, still a cool trick, preferences are preferences.
-
Comment on Is AI actually useful for anyone here? in ~tech
Reapy LinkFor me it is very useful. I've been a developer a bit over 20 years, but I've worked for smaller companies most of the time so a lot of my tech knowledge is self taught besides what I learned in...For me it is very useful. I've been a developer a bit over 20 years, but I've worked for smaller companies most of the time so a lot of my tech knowledge is self taught besides what I learned in school around 2000, so most of that is outdated short of the algorithms and I'd argue the school was behind current tech stack at the time anyway.
At my current company we can't put our code into an AI so i haven't run it with it having any context to what i'm doing or had it fill out code for me, instead I use it as question engine for things from basic to general verification of simple questions. I'm currently using it a lot for python and I generally trust the results for the type of questions I'm getting back and have learned and discovered a lot in it's usage.
My reason is that I've had to basically self teach myself most everything in my career. I was taught C++ in school and that is it. Leaving college I had to write in C which was very hard to step back from the object oriented I was taught. I was also outside webdev short of hobby projects I built. After a few years and stuff not mentioning I had settled with a core of batch/bash, PERL, and Java depending on the scale of the task. I've since replace the perl part with python because, well, python, so good.
What I've noticed over the years is that learning and building on the job I discover a large amount of holes in my knowledge. I also don't read programmer blogs or anything like that because generally I dislike programmer discourse (another topic in itself) so I really only learn about things when I'm doing them and have time to research approaches. There was always that initial burst of learning with books and tutorials when picking up a language, but it's easy to forget or not mark particular things as important when you don't know the language. In addition languages do change and update, python has keeps adding in new things in the versions and if you aren't digesting all that it is easy to miss things.
Another thing is that as I get older (almost 46) the syntax doesn't sitck as well and it takes me a while to get in the flow of whatever language I'm working with, in between that time I am googling a lot for common things as I will forget control structure or just simple things like how do you open a file in this language. While google is fine mostly, chatgpt is great because you can now add your specifics to the examples and just ask it about new things, it also provides google topics to further research into.
By using chatgpt to run my google questions through instead I've learned about a bunch of different libraries and techniques. I also like to ask it things like whats the most pythonic way to do X because I tend to still always think in java, and then can see if I like what it's showing. These kinds of questions are best answered by 'what's the most frequent thing people do in their code' and I feel like the AI is great at showing you this.
That all said I'm also hugely scared of AI and people's over reliance on it as is mentioned numerous times in the thread. I have been developing for 20+ years and sat on a PC my while life, I know there is a lot I don't understand but I have a reasonably good feel for when i need to double check or pull in more sources from the output. I also know that I don't double check EVERYTHING all the time either when I ask it things that aren't important, but let's be real I've taken many an internet comment /youtube video as truth as well, so not a huge overreach.
But yes I don't like normalizing the entire humanity through chatgpt, after reading some of it you can really feel the patterns of its tones. If you think about it chatgpt is like giving you those AAA blockbuster movies that are just all the same. They are like ok and expected and never BAD, but they will never be good or even close to great. I feel like we should aim for more than lukewarm in the thing we produce. It's going to get ugly for a bit honestly but I hope there is a giant backlash down the line.
In summary AI is incredibly useful, incredibly useless, and potentially very dangerous a trap to fall into.
-
Comment on Who’d be into a book club but for retro games? in ~games
Reapy Link ParentI have set up wonderful emulation platforms so many times over the year only to play like 10 minutes of games as well. I could only stomach the games I was reasonably good at where the muscle...I have set up wonderful emulation platforms so many times over the year only to play like 10 minutes of games as well. I could only stomach the games I was reasonably good at where the muscle memory had not left, the rest are fair to judge by modern standards and of course the old stuff hardly holds up.
Game design has come a long way besides just the hardware capabilities. Something like shove knight is the perfect example of how far modern game has come along, retro sprites without the retro jank.
That said some masterpieces hold up, I think ps1 era rpgs and forward can still be great, though by now many of them have been remade (for good or for ill sometimes).
But yeah, I'm just another person who can't drop the value of those games I had growing up, but really don't want to play most of them again when there are so many new and great games out there.
-
Comment on What’s a plot twist that happened in your own life? in ~life
Reapy Link ParentYes, you guys busted your asses for his 12 percent. His navigation of political stuff probably not anywhere near the effort you guys made executing. It's really important to not go all in on any...Yes, you guys busted your asses for his 12 percent. His navigation of political stuff probably not anywhere near the effort you guys made executing. It's really important to not go all in on any job unless you own the business or are friends with or have evidence that the owner will appreciate and reward going above and beyond. Otherwise you are just the juice being squeezed out.
-
Comment on Help me analyze/understand the background of this AI video? in ~tech
Reapy LinkGoogle veo 3 makes these. All the ones of a person doing a vlog style are from the as well, you can start to see the look and feel of it after a few. Veo I think makes good use of massive server...Google veo 3 makes these. All the ones of a person doing a vlog style are from the as well, you can start to see the look and feel of it after a few. Veo I think makes good use of massive server farms for the amount of quality it can put out. Not sure if the script was generated or part of the prompt though. I believe veo does the lip sync and voice gen though.
V rising is good as people suggested and should give you the most playtime IMHO. State of decay 2 is also great for the opening hours, but it falls off a cliff and starts to feel very repetitive. Still the opening hours are very fun and make it worth trying regardless of longevity.