secret_online's recent activity
-
Comment on Jet Lag Season 17: Taiwan Rail Rush | Trailer in ~hobbies
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
secret_online Link ParentYep, that was me! This would be yet another longer project for me, so if there's other uses for that space then don't worry about my reservation. It might also be worth letting @hamstergeddon...Yep, that was me! This would be yet another longer project for me, so if there's other uses for that space then don't worry about my reservation.
It might also be worth letting @hamstergeddon know, since they've already run a rail line in this direction. Whether it uses the same line or whether we run a new one closer to the surface to a smaller hub that connects to their line, I don't know yet.
-
Comment on Jet Lag Season 17: Taiwan Rail Rush | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 3 spoilers Monkey mountain delivers! The team on the podcast all agree that 40 monkeys was about bang on the correct number for this challenge, in that it was both high but also...Episode 3 spoilers
Monkey mountain delivers! The team on the podcast all agree that 40 monkeys was about bang on the correct number for this challenge, in that it was both high but also achievable. Sam and Michael had quite the shock learning that the boys earned 80 coins from that, especially after going low with the boba challenge.
The zoo challenge entirely depended on whether there were grazing animals in there. Luckily there were, and it's quite funny that they immediately walk in and find a llama. They do comment on how challenges sometimes deviate from their expected value (sometimes a low value challenge is hard, or a high value challenge is easy), and that's just part of the game. There is also some chatter about the spreadsheet they were using to track everything, and how they blacked out the rows until that challenge was unlocked, and used colour coding to note the state of it. It's a lot of manual admin to be doing mid-game.
I have to say, I enjoyed some of the edits in this part of the episode. Sam and Michael drop their bags off and comment on how freeing it is, then we cut to Adam and Ben having to lug their packs up the mountain. Adam and Ben talk about how they need to find monkeys, then it jumps to Sam and Michael outside the zoo looking at the monkey enclosure. Later we see both teams wanting to get on the train they need, one team get on and the other doesn't.
On the podcast they mention how these two challenges were almost simultaneous, and there were tough editing decisions to make those cuts work. The boys completed monkey mountain only about 10-15 minutes before Sam and Michael attempted the zoo challenge, which is so close when you think about the fact they are doing two animal challenges on opposite ends of the country. I'm glad they did shift things around a little, as watching the entirety of monkey mountain in one go without the cuts to the other team would have been really long.
Sam and Michael not making it onto their train actually helps them here, because they end up with the ability to go for a different steal. Trying to count jellyfish in curved tanks in a low-light mirrored room is the kind of thing you'd see in actual reality tv. I think they both did a very good job at following through on the challenge. I've quite enjoyed these challenges where the two team members have to be in sync with each other, and it seems they do too so I wouldn't be surprised if more of these featured in future team games.
I'm really enjoying how this season is going. This is a good format for the location they've chosen, and I think there are things they can definitely take into future games.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
secret_online Link ParentThis has been a slow burn project of mine. Ever since we settled in the area I wanted to restore the ruined portal that was naturally spawned and decorate the space around it. Our base itself...I just noticed @EthinolicBob and @secret_online now have a beautiful nether portal along the path to their bases. Not sure if this is new, but I know they've worked on their bases a bit.
This has been a slow burn project of mine. Ever since we settled in the area I wanted to restore the ruined portal that was naturally spawned and decorate the space around it. Our base itself doesn't have a nether portal (well, we have the roof portal I guess), we decided that we would use that one instead. It encouraged us to make the path down from our hilltop to the portal, which then informed the terrain Eth designed. It also gave us the starting point for Eth's roads that connect the spruce forest to the other areas of the server.
I want to build a custom tree in the centre of the clearing, and add some more market stalls, then do some armour stand work to liven the place up. I want it to feel like a window into some past timeline where the portal was the centre of some celebration before it was abandoned and left to ruin. I haven't figured out the story of it yet, and whether I want to hint at whatever went wrong (if something went wrong). As I said, it's a slow burn project.
-
Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
secret_online Link ParentOh, right. I read that statement as a "it could support normal money ¯\_(ツ)_/¯", and your statement of explicit support as x402 either supporting normal money right now or at the very least having...Oh, right. I read that statement as a "it could support normal money ¯\_(ツ)_/¯", and your statement of explicit support as x402 either supporting normal money right now or at the very least having an explicit definition of how it would be implemented.
As far as I can tell, no established payment provider/facilitator (even Stripe, which has integrated using crypto and even then is only available to US-based merchants) has actually made a statement or indication that they will support it. There are 8 main crypto networks defined, but 0 real world currency identifiers either mentioned or reserved. Payment amounts are sent in the API calls as
$, which you would think is the US dollar (ignoring the 29 other types of dollar) but is actually the USDC stable coin. Yes, it's pegged to the US dollar, but it is once again referring to a crypto concept and not a real-world one.As irrationally annoyed as I am about it, I want an open payments standard to succeed, and I want it to succeed in a way that doesn't fuck over the internet. I think there's too much VC money dumped into crypto for me to trust it. If a reputable provider does support real money in my country, then I'll consider using it. Until then, I'm going to be filing it under "crypto".
-
Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
secret_online Link ParentWhere are you seeing this? Because everywhere I've seen the docs site talk about fiat or credit cards seems to be avoiding the topic, rather than saying "here's how it could work if someone were...It's also extensible with classic payment methods, in fact explicitly supports this
Where are you seeing this? Because everywhere I've seen the docs site talk about fiat or credit cards seems to be avoiding the topic, rather than saying "here's how it could work if someone were to support it". Instead all of the extensions that exist are very much crypto focused and seem to be entrenching crypto as the way to use x402.
I don't expect a project co-founded by Coinbase will want to support payments with actual money. I know Coinbase themselves don't take a slice from anything x402 related, but they have an interest in giving crypto a use case that doesn't include a way to bypass the crypto. Much like Web Monetization before it, I don't see x402 decoupling itself from crypto, and that leads me to believe it will never be taken seriously by the web world at large.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
secret_online Link ParentPlease do! I think cactus flowers would actually go really well with our build style, plus they're just really nice blocks.Please do! I think cactus flowers would actually go really well with our build style, plus they're just really nice blocks.
-
Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
secret_online LinkI've been wondering what CloudFlare wanted to do with the Astro acquisition since they announced it. I guess this is what it was: trying to eat at Vercel's market share by having their own...I've been wondering what CloudFlare wanted to do with the Astro acquisition since they announced it. I guess this is what it was: trying to eat at Vercel's market share by having their own meta-framework that pushes you towards their own hosting platform.
An aside about Astro
Of all of the sevrer-side JS meta-frameworks right now, Astro is my current favourite. It took me a moment to properly understand its way of thinking, coming from Next.js and Remix mostly, but there are some things that just work nicely. It wasn't that bad coming from a React way of thinking.
I appreciate its focus on delivering plain old HTML and clearly sectioning off the heavier dynamic stuff. Certain patterns are a bit clunkier, but overall I have actually enjoyed using Astro and keep finding myself reaching for it.
I am glad that they have funding to keep the project going, and while I currently host most of my projects on CloudFlare, I really hope that it doesn't get too locked in. While Astro itself can be deployed anywhere, EmDash seems to be locked to CloudFlare Workers (and specifically a paid plan too).
I say Vercel, even though everything is comparing it to WordPress, because while "CloudFlare vibe coded a WordPress competitor in two months" makes for a good headline, I don't think the people reaching for WordPress are necessarily going to see this as a viable alternative. Instead, I see the kinds of people reaching for Next.js for a blog or bespoke e-commerce site being the people who would actually give it a try.
WordPress is as big as it is because of its plugin ecosystem, and CloudFlare is very much going after that here. The explicit calling out of the GPL licensing debates reads to me as CloudFlare saying "yeah, develop plugins for us as we'll allow them to be closed source so you can charge for them and keep competitors at bay." Combine that with... x402? What's that? *clicks, scrolls down* Oh it's crypto lol. Yeah, maybe not but good try. The focus on the security model is interesting too, and I think is actually a good selling point. Jumping back to a Next.js comparison, there's nothing equivalent to a permission system there either, so there's another differentiation.
I'd be cautious adopting it, but I'll be watching from the sidelines to see how this goes.
-
Comment on Jet Lag Season 17: Taiwan Rail Rush | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 2 spoilers My feeling about this season keeps growing. I think it was definitely the right decision of Sam and Michael to go back to the west coast of the island. With there being more...Episode 2 spoilers
My feeling about this season keeps growing.
I think it was definitely the right decision of Sam and Michael to go back to the west coast of the island. With there being more stations there, I feel like it's more likely that new challenges will appear in the area, as well as there being more ways to get there between the high speed and local lines. It definitely pays off, especially when do many challenges end up being in the top half of the map where they already are, which then effectively forces Adam and Ben to go down even further.
That tofu rocks challenge strikes again. I this Sam and Michael did the right things by practicing beforehand to give them the best chance. They also realised that trying to translate the path to a sequence and memorising the sequence was more effort and it'd be faster to remember the path. Still, it bested them. Apparently when Amy designed the path she might not have known that the memorisation time was only 2 minutes, due to the way that challenges were designed this season.
The McDonald's taste test was meant to be a shrimp tempura burger, but the particular place they went weren't selling it. Amy had actually put together an entire list of fallback options, and the one they had was like 3rd on the list.
Apparently they've had the challenge where you have to film for some amount of time where nobody enters the frame in a lot of seasons, it's just never come up. As soon as I saw Adam take his shoes off I physically cringed. I've lived near a fairly silty river, and I just do not enjoy the squelchy mud, and after that he would have had to put his socks and shoes back on without cleaning them and that just is not fun. Apart from that, I think they did pretty well here. They identified an area where nobody would go, then angled the shot to ensure the best chances, and went for it. Not much to say about it really.
The following is a direct quote from the podcast:
So then Mike and I go and acquire some juicy balls. Juicy balls to suck and blow on, [...]
(I refuse to grow up)
They say it on the podcast, but it's cool that there is just a place that made boba tea a thing, and it has stayed in a small building, and while it has definitely been upgraded over the years, it's still just a shop on the street and not some big giant commercial enterprise. As for the execution of the challenge, once they figured out to shoot them high their success rate went massively up. There would have been some editing, since Michael said their success rate was about 50% by the end, but that was still way better than shooting straight for the cup. If they knew about the technique before calling the shots, then I'm sure they would have gone much higher.
The monkey mountain cliffhanger was such a good place to end the episode. I haven't watched episode 3 yet, but I feel it could go either way. In the research they did before making their guess, they saw videos with lots of monkeys, but in the video itself I'm not hearing all that much noise, and there's only so much distance you can cover walking and looking out for monkeys in 40 minutes.
There was some extra chat on the podcast about their overnighting, Sam and Michael stayed at this nautical themed place, and I was thinking their story was actually going to go somewhere or explain why there's a nautical themed hotel in a random office building, but instead it ended on some social embarassment as they are asked why they're choosing to stay there. This paragraph I'm writing also seemed like it was going somewhere.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
secret_online Link ParentOh nice! I wish I knew about that tool before manually splitting pages for my favourite Skyrim book. I'll donate a copy to the library, and possibly add more too.Oh nice! I wish I knew about that tool before manually splitting pages for my favourite Skyrim book. I'll donate a copy to the library, and possibly add more too.
-
Comment on Jet Lag Season 17: Taiwan Rail Rush | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 1 spoilers Ok, I think this series has potential. There's a fair amount of strategy and mingle games for how many coins to put down at each stop, which they've commented on in the podcast...Episode 1 spoilers
Ok, I think this series has potential. There's a fair amount of strategy and mingle games for how many coins to put down at each stop, which they've commented on in the podcast as keeping the game feeling fresher than the other formats.
Oh, and I instinctively called them coins didn't I. I know they're chips, and the team called them chips to differentiate then from how coins work in other seasons. Still, even in this episode, they have to fight calling then coins. I think coins would have been ok, they've used it as a generic term before.
I think Adam and Ben made the right decision to not combat Sam and Michael on the bird challenge, and instead be a bit more aggressive on the board to get some stations down. Plus they got to choose the busier side of the island where there are more stations and more trains to connect to.
On the podcast Michael talks about his strategy for the bird challenge, which was to try and memorise everything. In hindsight, he realises that Sam is almost definitely going to choose a distinctive bird and therefore he doesn't need to memorise every type of dove or pigeon. It works out in the end, because Sam chooses a distinctive bird. Also not shown on the show is the fact they had to find the sign in the park. It's not at all obvious where the sign is, so the first step was to walk around and find it in the first place. They decided to cut all that from the episode to keep the pace up.
Adam at the tofu rocks going in with a plan to remember a sequence of numbers abstracted away from the path he would be taking was certainly a choice. I also think his chances went down drastically when he realised it was a hex grid rather than square, as that seemed to shake him really bad. For those sorts of challenges I think the answer is just to try and memorise the shape of the path relative to a certain direction and follow that shape as best as you can.
The cat village was very vibey, though I don't think I'd want to live there. I think the novelty of having all the cats around would wear off quickly. Michael was right in that the photo of cats touching would be the hardest to get. My watching buddy was talking about how "cat puddles" are a thing, but that's only for cats that are more familiar with each other and are in a safe place, and I feel that's less likely in a village full of strays.
Back to Adam and Ben, as soon as I saw the Buddha and pagodas was a Monty Hall problem I paused and told my buddy "mathematically they should switch, but I am sure Amy would have chosen the Buddha to fake them out". We then had a tangent where I had to explain the Monty Hall problem to them (which took a while), but I felt vindicated at the end when it turns out that Amy did indeed put the metaphorical car in the Buddha tower.
The quiz questions for the hot tub hot seat were tough, I'm not surprised Sam didn't get them. Apparently there were more geography and food questions that Sam would have answered, but of course Michael doesn't know Sam having only played this game for less than a day at this point. Also they didn't really factor in how long it would take to just ask the questions, so they were both glad they attempted a conservative number of questions even if they didn't get it.
I'm definitely looking forward to how this one plays out. As I said at the top, it has potential for sure, and the loop-like nature of Taiwan's rail network makes this game work really well here.
-
Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech
secret_online Link ParentSure, Epic has the money, but a lot of the objections come from places that aren't serious competitors. I'll mention two here. F-droid is an alternative app store, and every single app is free as...- Exemplary
But for any serious competitior, paying $25 for an id check doesn't seem like all that big a hurdle?
Sure, Epic has the money, but a lot of the objections come from places that aren't serious competitors. I'll mention two here.
F-droid is an alternative app store, and every single app is free as in both beer and speech. Google's rules would require every single one of these developers to provide government ID. For most F-droid developers this is a barrier in one way or another, be it monetary, bureaucratic, or ideological. For some, particularly the ones building apps focused on privacy, giving government ID to Google of all corporations outright puts them in danger due to Google's involvement with US law enforcement. F-droid themselves have put out a couple of posts on the topic, explaining their stance further.
The second I'll mention is myself. I'm not really an app developer, and have no intention of being one. However I greatly benefit from the ability to install unsigned apps on my phone. A few years ago there was a project called YouTube Vanced, which was a patched version of the YouTube app that removed ads, among other customisation tweaks. (As an aside, I do actually pay for YT Premium as part of a family bundle so my parents can watch normally, but the other customisation tweaks and inclusion of Sponsorblock is enough for me to keep me using patched apps.) Vanced was shut down for redistributing Google's IP in the form of the YouTube app, but from its ashes were spawned projects that allow you to take the YouTube APK you source yourself (e.g. the one you already have installed, or from apkmirror), download the patches separately that don't include the source code of any apps they're patching, and perform the patching on your own device (the one I'd recommend right now is Morphe, which is a fork of ReVanced by some of the original ReVanced developers. It's pretty damn easy to use too) because the act of patching software is not illegal and nor should it be. Thanks to this process, I have sponsorblock on my phone, I have hidden as much to do with Shorts as possible, and most of the distractions and calls-to-action are gone. I'm not paying Google $25 for the privilege of letting them know that I'm patching the shittiness out of their own applications.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
secret_online Link ParentA common thing in map art schematics is to include a row of blocks just to the north of the actual map, specifically to ensure the top row has the correct lighting.A common thing in map art schematics is to include a row of blocks just to the north of the actual map, specifically to ensure the top row has the correct lighting.
-
Comment on Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core | Official Early Access release date trailer – 20th May 2026 in ~games
secret_online Link ParentTo me the limited carry limit for each resource works in the game's favour, or at least feels like an intentional decision to me. It encourages you to deposit often and stay with the group,...To me the limited carry limit for each resource works in the game's favour, or at least feels like an intentional decision to me. It encourages you to deposit often and stay with the group, because that's where Molly is most likely to be. On gamemodes where there's a central depositing point it keeps that point as important, and those levels generally have a pretty closed design.
There are marginal carry capacity upgrades you can equip: a perk that goes up to +15 that you unlock in the perk terminal the equip at the equipment terminal, and a +5 for your armour in the equipment terminal. I'm basically the scout of my group no matter which class I'm playing, so I've never had anything other than those equipped. That makes the maximum 60 and that's still less than a resupply's worth of nitra, but when I recommended someone in my friend group try the carry capacity perk it changed things for them and they no longer felt as hampered by the carry capacity. All of my load outs have those perks/upgrades selected.
As an aside, what hazard level were you playing at? The game works better when you're under pressure. Haz 4 is usually where my group sits when we play, it keeps them coming but doesn't overwhelm us. That said, the difficulty does vary, and we've had some Haz 4s that were absolutely at the Haz 5 level. When you're under pressure you're less likely to be off on your own because you often need the firepower of multiple dwarves, which means you'll likely be closer to where you can deposit.
-
Comment on It's only March, but I'm calling it – Esoteric Ebb is 2026's best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium in ~games
secret_online Link ParentSolid picks for best characters, I'd put Snell somewhere up high because he is precious and I want him to live a happy life (though it's easy to put Snell highly given how much character time he...Solid picks for best characters, I'd put Snell somewhere up high because he is precious and I want him to live a happy life (though it's easy to put Snell highly given how much character time he gets). Meek stayed with me until the end after unlocking them. There's also a particular sentient sword that I kept around after receiving it.
I also really appreciated Visken's characterisation and writing, even if I wanted to never have to deal with him. I say that, but curiosity led me to have the dangerous chat with him. It did not go well the first time (failed the DC by 1. The second time I met the DC). I think he was appropriately built up through his dealings more so than in direct dialogue, which made him feel more a part of the world and that's always a positive. That chat also led to a really fun minor reveal, which I appreciated.
-
Comment on Parseword - a delightfully complex word game from Wordle’s creator in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI think that's just an inherent property of cryptics. You need to just know how clues are constructed before you can even start, and that means knowing the ways that words are manipulated as well...I think that's just an inherent property of cryptics. You need to just know how clues are constructed before you can even start, and that means knowing the ways that words are manipulated as well as all of the indicator words and phrases that tell you to do those manipulations.
Not that I'm trying to justify this, I remember how hard it was to get started with cryptics because I didn't know the vocabulary. I just don't think there can be a version of this that has an on-ramp that isn't a lot of tutorialising. The tutorials they do have are quite good, and I kind of wish there were more that I could send to non-cryptic friends to have them learn that vocab.
-
Comment on ‘I took two bites and had to spit it out’: US candy makers are phasing out real cocoa in chocolate in some products in ~food
secret_online Link ParentThank you Whittaker's for saving us from the scourge that is Cadbury. There is simply no other type of chocolate in my snack drawer.Thank you Whittaker's for saving us from the scourge that is Cadbury. There is simply no other type of chocolate in my snack drawer.
-
Comment on It's only March, but I'm calling it – Esoteric Ebb is 2026's best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium in ~games
secret_online (edited )Link ParentI finished the game last night. I'll leave a spoiler and non-spoiler review here, but I'd also recommend reading @sparksbet's comment as well. Non-spoiler review Where to even start with this......I finished the game last night. I'll leave a spoiler and non-spoiler review here, but I'd also recommend reading @sparksbet's comment as well.
Non-spoiler review
Where to even start with this... This game isn't Disco Elysium. It is its own game. I very much enjoyed it, but if you're looking for Disco 2 then this is not it. If you put Disco aside and treat it as its own game, then I think Esoteric Ebb is a lot more enjoyable.
I did have a few bugs on my save, mostly related to unlocking specific dialogue options on characters. Most of these were fixed in the most recent patch, but there's still one thing I think is still broken? It's not the end of the world, I'm sure that whatever was behind a particular secret door probably wasn't going to help me that much given what I had found already. There were alternate ways to find the information I needed, but I did feel lost for a while since I expected to learn certain things earlier.
As I mentioned in my first comment, only having the 6 attributes as the voices in your head was a good decision. It allows each of them to have a clear personality and set of values holding up each of their beliefs. They very much are their own characters. It also means you don't have to think about individual ability scores like in D&D, which are just more numbers. The numbers aren't the focus of this game.
Combat being entirely driven by the dialogue system was interesting. I feel like enemies sometimes got extra actions rather than it strictly following the initiative order. A top for anyone playing, when it's your turn you can cast spells from the spells area of the UI, you don't have to choose the dialogue options. I found this out while fighting something that has grappled me. I wanted to cast Grease, but there was no option in the dialogue, and only then did I realise that the icon in the bottom left of my screen was different, since I had been putting all of my attention on the right of the screen.
Speaking of, prepare Grease. Grease has always been one of my favourite utility spells in D&D, and it lives up its potential here.
Stat choices in character creation matter mostly at the beginning. My character started with high DEX and WIS, but over the course of the game I ended up having good modifiers on almost everything. And if I needed something in particular, then I could just swap items around and try again. I'd still be fifty-fifty on some rolls, but most would go in my favour.
Be prepared for acronyms/initialisms. As the developer has stated, this is based on their homebrew, and clearly their players abbreviate and acronym things a lot. It's both a rough edge and a bit of charm. Not every acronym is important, but you'll remember the important ones. Really, the main one is NoF. It comes up a few times in context, so you'll remember it for sure.
Overall, this is a good game. I think a good number of people on Tildes would enjoy what it has to offer. It's definitely not a recommendation to my entire friend group, but to enough of them that I will talk about it.
Spoiler review
EAT THE APPLE, APPLEBOY.
I completed most of the quests. There were still 3 unstarted quests at the end of my game, and I have no idea what they are. I think I have a good grasp on what the game has to offer.
Our cleric is an interesting character. They clearly have a lot of backstory that is revealed over time. Almost all of the skills have some hook into the backstory, which was a really nice touch. I don't know why I don't want to talk about them in the section specifically labelled for spoilers, but they really are best experienced rather than told.
Does the ending stick the landing? I say yeah. It's not world-shattering or life-changing in any way, but I think it does a good job of thing everything together. I enjoyed the Big Bad's monologue and motivation, despite being completely against it. I listened to Urth as he explained why goblin genocide and assimilation was, in his view, necessary, before being the backup to Snell who is probably the only goblin who will ever get anything approaching closure for the crimes committed against his people. I cried a little as The Cleric opened up about his prayer to the one person who fulfilled it as we stood alone in front of the ballot boxes. I watched the credits, sad it was over but glad to have played it.
It's not all roses (apples?). Parts of the final confrontation sequence felt like they came out of the blue and didn't have the right amount of foreshadowing. As far as I can tell, there isn't any other mention of "the smoking invisible man" than one witness, and there's absolutely no hint at all about it being Lord Gorm. Perhaps this information is made more obvious if you side with Ever-glad, but I was not doing that when I could go with the option of the Sphinx instead.
There weren't really any hints to the grand conspiracy either, with that mostly being told (in the pillar sequence) rather than shown. It all makes sense in-universe of course, with the freestriders being involved in everything as this world succumbs to capitalism, but there's no way to put that together except in that sequence.
I found that I didn't need to rest that often, my exhaustion got up to 3 on one day when I was pushing it, but then an esoteric event happened and I was given the effects of a long rest for a slightly shorter time period. Apart from the exhaustion, there's really no reason not to stay awake as long as possible before heading to the tower.
I thought the story the game wove was fun and engaging, and the political lean was of benefit to the game. It had a nuanced take on nationalism vs fascism, which isn't something you see often. It showed the corruptive influences of a capital-based system, and how it can be used as a vehicle for other ideals. It had... one confrontation about extremism in social revolutions that was a bit awkwardly done and maybe needs some work. But overall, the style and actual text provided was very good, which is important for a game whose main, and really only, narative vehicle is text.
So yeah, I really enjoyed my time with Esoteric Ebb. It gets a thumbs up from me.
As an aside, is there anything that actually explains what the Esoteric Ebb actually is? The demi-lich skull says Jor is alive and the strings something something, Isk talks about how Power Word: Ebb simply must be involved in wars that happened while he was in stasis prison (unless I misunderstood the timeline, which is entirely possible), and Ever-glad name drops it but doesn't say anything (and I doubt it would even if you become its warlock). For something that is important enough to be the title of the game and is only name dropped by the most powerful magical users you encounter, it plays such a minor part in the story and world. Not that the title has to mean anything, but having it mentioned the way it was makes me feel like there should have been more.
-
Comment on It's only March, but I'm calling it – Esoteric Ebb is 2026's best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI think Pratchett might be overselling it a bit, but I can certainly see why the comparison was made. The hallmarks are there; there are goofy solutions to mundane problems, mundane solutions to...I think Pratchett might be overselling it a bit, but I can certainly see why the comparison was made. The hallmarks are there; there are goofy solutions to mundane problems, mundane solutions to goofy problems, and goofy solutions to absolutely weird situations. My character has died of literal embarrassment, awkwardly backed out of flirting, and experienced reality-bending events and followed them up with a simple thumbs up to who must be the most traumatised goblin in the city. But it manages to be its own thing, which I appreciate. Just straight up copying Pratchett would make it a lesser game.
GNU Terry Pratchett
-
Comment on It's only March, but I'm calling it – Esoteric Ebb is 2026's best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium in ~games
secret_online (edited )LinkI picked up this game over the weekend, and it's all I can think about. The inner dialogues are just fantastic, and paring it down to just the 6 attributes definitely works in the game's favour....I picked up this game over the weekend, and it's all I can think about. The inner dialogues are just fantastic, and paring it down to just the 6 attributes definitely works in the game's favour. There's clearly a lot of thought that has gone into the world building, and I wasn't at all surprised when I re-read the Steam store page and saw it was the developer's homebrew setting.
I'm playing the game relatively straightforward at the moment, but I definitely want to do two more playthroughs in the future. I'm currently about halfway through day 3, and now some of the threads are starting to come together. I feel like I'm still missing some important dialogue, but I'm sure I'll find it eventually. I also don't know where to explore next, I get the feeling there's more deeper underground, but I just don't know how to get there yet.
Non-spoiler update: I'm now at the beginning of day 4. I managed to find my way down, and met some important folks with some rather interesting conversations. There's still more for me to do down there, but I'll just have to do that later. I also think I have the final goal. There are still plenty of loose ends, am I even going to get to tie them up? I'll definitely see more in future playthroughs.
Non-spoiler update: Mid-afternoon on day 4. I think I have everything I need in order to do that final objective. I do have some quests I'd like to finish, and maybe get to level 6 for the extra health before proceeding. I have a few unstarted quests in my quest tree, and I have no idea what they even could be. I only realised too late that I had the opportunity to bring a particular person to a particular location which would have helped a lot with a particular event, but that's fine.
I am a sucker for this kind of art style, and the music builds just the right kind of atmosphere. I love that all of the weapons you find are useless, but still have the stat bonuses. I love the little bits of world building, like the theoretical debate of whether there are 4 or 8 pillars. I love that the game dunks on the "apolitical" stance at every opportunity it can. I love the little jokes and references like asking the potion seller for the strongest potions, or how someone in the developer's actual campaign clearly said "geez" in-character and then the group of them came up with a justification for why an IRL exclamation based on IRL religion makes sense in this setting. I just love how this game is so very clearly itself and not trying to be anything else.
Episode 4 spoilers
Quote of the episode:
Looking back at this episode, so little and so much happened here. This feels like a turning point almost, where everything the teams have done before led to this point.
Of course, the big thing that happens in this episode is that Sam and Michael have a path to steal the steal, and do it. The challenge itself seems to be one that wasn't quite calibrated correctly, but i mentioned in last week's comment that that's just a natural part of this game. It seems very much like they looked at a map, took the most straightforward route to town, and the place they were looking for was on the corner of the main street.
The big knock-on effect is that Adam and Ben have do throw down so many chips on their stations so that the steal didn't give Sam and Michael an even bigger chip lead. They might've won 70 chips with the taste test challenge, but they had throw them all down in an area that Sam and Michael were never going to contest. Now they're basically in a position where the have to go big on the can stacking challenge in order to try and break through the barrier to where the challenges are.
I'm very interested to see how the next episode plays out, because a lot of this game now depends on whether Adam can walk 200ft with a stack of cans. If he succeeds, then there's the possibility of breaking through into the Taipei area where both teams are rushing to claim challenges. If he fails, then it'll be difficult to dethrone Sam and Michael. I'll always root for the boys, but I definitely want them to succeed even more here.