erithaea's recent activity
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Comment on People with a very good memory: does that make it harder to forgive? in ~talk
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Comment on 10M people watched a YouTuber shim a lock; the lock company sued him. Bad idea. in ~tech
erithaea Link ParentAw, nooo! Caught in Providence was one of my favourite YouTube channels. I was wondering about the lack of uploads, but I thought they were just taking a break. :( If I remember correctly, one of...Aw, nooo! Caught in Providence was one of my favourite YouTube channels. I was wondering about the lack of uploads, but I thought they were just taking a break. :(
If I remember correctly, one of Judge Caprio's sons is also an attorney, so maybe there's a chance he'll take up his father's legacy, become a judge, and reboot the YouTube channel at some point. Who knows... :)
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea LinkSo a few weeks ago I posted about how I decided not to play Once Human once I found out you cannot rebind the interact action. I have since revisited that proclamation and wrote an AutoHotkey...So a few weeks ago I posted about how I decided not to play Once Human once I found out you cannot rebind the interact action. I have since revisited that proclamation and wrote an AutoHotkey script that rebinds E to F and F to E while playing the game. AutoHotkey scripts are risky in online games since anticheats like to false-positive flag them as botting software, but so far it's been fine.
If there's one thing I really don't like about the game so far though is that the game provides absolutely zero on-hit feedback (i.e. some kind of screen effect or animation that you're taking damage). I've had several deaths so far, and every single one of them without exception was because I just do not notice I'm taking damage at all. Sometimes because enemies are attacking me I'm not even aware of, but most of the time it's just being hit by bullets (which also doesn't have any kind of visual effect) or being affected by damage-over-time effects (which I think may have a tiny icon on the UI, but you're equally as unlikely to notice that icon as your healthbar going down). Anytime I'm in combat I basically just have to stare constantly at my healthbar, which is very annoying.
Other than that the gunplay and general exploration is pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, most of the EU servers (as far as I'm aware) are completely dominated by Russians who exclusively use cyrillic, so there's absolutely no social aspect at the moment. For this reason, common advice for EU players seems to be to actually play on NA servers, but I'd be worried about the ping in that case.
I'm not very far into it yet, so I don't know what the endgame experience is like. If anyone has any experience with this game, I'd love to hear it.
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Comment on Amazon Web Services outage impacts in ~tech
erithaea Link ParentAtlassian auth services are/were down, so I couldn't access Jira at work for the entire morning. It's working again now (or at least it worked for long enough to allow me to log in) but since...Atlassian auth services are/were down, so I couldn't access Jira at work for the entire morning. It's working again now (or at least it worked for long enough to allow me to log in) but since we're currently in a QA period where we have to create and review a lot of tickets, it was a pretty big showstopper.
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Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk
erithaea LinkFor me, there is only one clear answer: pouring all the money into funding two massively expensive and equally ambitious scientific projects: one revolves around live genetic engineering, with the...For me, there is only one clear answer: pouring all the money into funding two massively expensive and equally ambitious scientific projects: one revolves around live genetic engineering, with the end goal of creating functional wings on humans. The other is mechanical engineering, seeking to create a fully functional pair of human-sized mechanical wings for humans. Volunteers would be sought out as test subjects and paid out upwards of one million dollars if the experiment upon them fails. (If it succeeds, they get paid nothing as they will be able to fly, which is payment enough.)
I don't care which one of them succeeds, if any. I will also accept nothing short of perfect. No half-assed solutions, no wings that break down mid-flight or can't bear my weight. I will take to the skies and thereby skip (most of) my 1-hour commute to work. I will pay the necessary authorities to ensure I will be the sole proprietor of this new low-altitude personal wing airspace across the globe. If you want wings too, you'll need to buy a wing permit from me. (Including the volunteer(s) whose experiment succeeded. They should have read the small print.) The permit is going to be expensive, because I don't want too much traffic up there. It wouldn't be as much fun if anyone could fly.
As an aside: if either project unexpectedly succeeds before the money dries up, I may invest the rest of the money into genetic engineering to create catgirls (and catboys; I don't discriminate). If we can make wings, then a tail should be easy, right?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea (edited )Link ParentThat's right, the naming is a bit confusing, but it does make sense if you go through the lore. Without spoiling anything, Eureka Orthos is actually the "real" Eureka. They named the field...That's right, the naming is a bit confusing, but it does make sense if you go through the lore. Without spoiling anything, Eureka Orthos is actually the "real" Eureka. They named the field exploration island Eureka as an homage to Eureka Orthos, because at that point they didn't yet know that a) Eureka Orthos actually existed (most thought it was just a legend) and b) that the island already had a name (the Isle of Val). There's a bit more to it (there's a more direct link between the two than that), but I'll leave that for you to explore!
I don't remember off the top of my head if that link is only explained in Eureka or also mentioned in Eureka Orthos though. I would definitely recommend giving Eureka (the field exploration) a try too though – it's still my favourite of the three and while I haven't set foot in there in a while, back when I did it in late Shadowbringers/early Endwalker (I don't entirely remember) it was still very well populated.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea (edited )LinkHow do I always miss this thread when it comes out? Oh well, here goes: Vivid/stasis: This is a classic 4-key rhythm game with pixel graphics. It's also my first rhythm game ever. It's incredibly...How do I always miss this thread when it comes out? Oh well, here goes:
Vivid/stasis: This is a classic 4-key rhythm game with pixel graphics. It's also my first rhythm game ever. It's incredibly addicting! Why didn't I try a 4-key rhythm game sooner? The game also has a visual novel type of story with some puzzle elements and boss songs in it, but I'm still really bad (I can only FC songs up to level ~4 right now), so I can't speak to how good the story is – the chapter 1 "boss" alone requires you to be a rhythm game god in order to beat it. I'm definitely planning to put in the time required to make that happen though. (Edit: As of Oct 15, I have beaten the chapter 1 song!)
God Eater 3: I'd heard of this series before, but before playing it I had no idea it was actually a Monster Hunter clone in a post-apocalyptic setting. It's pretty fun. Definitely doesn't have nearly the amount of depth in its weapons as Monster Hunter does, but all the weapons are pretty fun to use, especially the Heavy Moon, which is my current favourite weapon type. I was actually close to putting the game down because all the fights were way too easy and over in 10 seconds, even the boss fights, but then the fights suddenly became a lot harder (and just in time to keep me interested), so that's good.
I do think it's funny how Girls Frontline 2 completely ripped off this game's story. I didn't even realize it until I played God Eater 3 because no one online is talking about it.
Spoiler for the beginning portions of GE3 and GFL2
In God Eater 3, you ride aboard a mobile fortress through an apocalyptic wasteland rife with dangerous fiends. You have some top-secret cargo aboard that even you don't know the contents of, when something happens, and the cargo is revealed to be a young female child with superpowers. You take this child under your wing and don't plan on delivering the cargo to its intended destination anymore.In Girls Frontline 2: Exilium, you ride aboard a mobile fortress through an apocalyptic wasteland rife with dangerous fiends. You have some top-secret cargo aboard that even you don't know the contents of, when something happens, and the cargo is revealed to be a young female child with superpowers. You take this child under your wing and don't plan on delivering the cargo to its intended destination anymore.
Monster Hunter Rise: I never finished Sunbreak, so I'm doing that now in preparation for the prophecied winter performance update for Wilds (which I still haven't bought due to the aforementioned performance issues). I'm having trouble deciding on a weapon though. Longsword is usually my favourite Monster Hunter weapon, but I feel like Rise's iteration of it is one of the weakest, mainly due to the absolutely horrid detection on Foresight Slash/Iai Spirit Slash. I can literally be right in the middle of a monster's attack, where I would have 100% taken damage without the i-frames those moves afford, but I still don't get the proc for successfully dodging an attack. I never had that problem in World. They definitely changed something with the detection. I think an attack now has to hit where the move puts you as opposed to where you are when you press the button? Or something like that.
On the flipside, Rise's Lance is one of my favourite iterations on the weapon. Insta-Block feels so good to use.
Bongo Cat: Not actually a game, at least not really, but a fun little desktop overlay you can leave running while doing other things. It's a cat. It taps your screen when you hit a key. You can give it a hat. What's not to love?
As an aside, last time I got some helpful suggestions to build a zipline tower in the middle of the map in Grounded to make the traversal less painful. It sounded like a good idea, so I tried it. Unfortunately, as I was in the middle of building it, my home base got raided by mosquitoes and mostly destroyed before I managed to get back to defend. I'm afraid that killed my motivation to continue playing the game for good, but thank you for the suggestions. I'm sure the tower would have actually made the traversal a lot more fun.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea Link Parent100% agree on the combat part. (I can't speak to the rest, since the combat turned me off too much to finish the game.) The combat functions just like the classic ATB-style combat system, but...100% agree on the combat part. (I can't speak to the rest, since the combat turned me off too much to finish the game.) The combat functions just like the classic ATB-style combat system, but presents itself as action combat, full with a dodge roll (that doesn't actually function like a dodge roll, because it gives no i-frames, nor does it meaningfully allow you to maneuver away from attacks, since most attacks track your character perfectly). I can only imagine this was done as a means to appeal to younger players, but it didn't work for me at all. Give me classic FF-style turn-based combat back and I will love you forever.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea Link ParentFrom the sound of it, it sounds like you may have skipped the previous deep dungeon, Eureka Orthos. If you have, definitely give that one a try, as mobs in that dungeon oneshot you as early as...From the sound of it, it sounds like you may have skipped the previous deep dungeon, Eureka Orthos. If you have, definitely give that one a try, as mobs in that dungeon oneshot you as early as floor 21 iirc!
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea Link ParentAs someone without a PS5 and for whom Yotei was one of my most anticipated games this year, it will be very difficult to wait 2 years (or however long Sony decides to leave the exclusivity up)....As someone without a PS5 and for whom Yotei was one of my most anticipated games this year, it will be very difficult to wait 2 years (or however long Sony decides to leave the exclusivity up). I'm on some hopium that Sony wizens up and realizes that this kind of exclusivity does nothing but hurt them financially.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea LinkMy quest to play every survival crafting game possible continues. Core Keeper: Didn't have this one on my radar at all before playing Abiotic Factor, but Abiotic Factor features a crossover with...My quest to play every survival crafting game possible continues.
Core Keeper: Didn't have this one on my radar at all before playing Abiotic Factor, but Abiotic Factor features a crossover with Core Keeper, so I thought I may as well check it out. If Terraria is 2D sidescroller Minecraft, then Core Keeper is 2D top-down Minecraft. It's really good! I'm not very far (just into scarlet tier), but I've been enjoying myself a lot.
Grounded: Not sure what to think of this one yet. The setting is incredibly cool, but there are some gameplay elements (particularly the very slow traversal across a massive map) that I find somewhat tedious. I'll reserve my final judgment on it until I've actually finished it though.
The Planet Crafter: If you think about it, this game is really just a very rudimentary idle clicker in 3D with survival crafting elements (or a survival crafting game with idle clicker elements, depending on your perspective) – but as with seemingly all idle clickers, it's incredibly addicting. I'm enjoying this one a lot. Thank the stars it's a Unity game though – without certain QoL mods (particularly the ability to craft from storage and to deposit items into nearby matching containers) the game would be downright unplayable.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea (edited )Link ParentYou might want to ask @BeardyHat about that. Based on their post, they're much further in the game than I am. But to my knowledge, everything in the game is handcrafted and there are no...You might want to ask @BeardyHat about that. Based on their post, they're much further in the game than I am. But to my knowledge, everything in the game is handcrafted and there are no procedurally generated elements, so in that sense I don't see big replayability potential here, at least not for me. However, because the game is so much fun and (I think at least) quite big in scope, I could definitely see myself playing the game for close to a hundred hours if not more.
There is class and trait selection at the start of the game, and
these are permanent and cannot be changed once you start your character(there's actually a way to respec, but you don't unlock access to it until later on), but your class only really gives you extra experience points when leveling certain skills. Traits are more interesting – there are positive and negative traits (choosing some negative traits allows you to pick more positive traits), and some of them have quite debilitating or powerful effects. Still, I don't think I would start a new playthrough just for the traits alone.Maybe there are mods that add new levels or change the gameplay to a sufficiently significant degree to warrant a new playthrough? I'm not really sure how moddable the game is and, in the interest of avoiding spoilers, haven't done any research in that regard yet.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea LinkI've been on a survival crafting binge in the past few months, so I finally have something to contribute too! I tried: V Rising. Fun game, I love the vampire aesthetic, and while this game's kind...I've been on a survival crafting binge in the past few months, so I finally have something to contribute too!
I tried:
V Rising. Fun game, I love the vampire aesthetic, and while this game's kind of strict grid-based base building can feel a little limiting, I thought it was the best implementation of a grid-based building system I've ever seen. The system they implemented for moving bases especially impressed me. That said, in the later game bosses were beginning to border on "unfun" for me. Maybe I'm just missing something, but plenty of boss attacks at that point in the game just feel borderline unavoidable to me, even if your entire build revolves around mobility and dodge cooldowns, so I took a break from the game for now. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point and finish off the last few bosses.
The Division 2: I always saw criticisms floating around the internet about the game being unfun because of "bullet spongey enemies" and I just absolutely don't understand that at all. Sure, some enemies are like Call of Duty juggernauts and take a few more bullets to kill, but that's by design – they're wearing heavy full body armour. Higher difficulties have higher enemy HP, but if that bothers you, just don't play at higher difficulties? I don't see the problem here. Very fun game, though after I completed the main story (which was entirely unimpressive, but the gameplay made up for it), I realized that I didn't look forward to the grind for all the good exotics, so I put the game down for now. Still got over 50h of great fun out of it though (especially once I discovered the "Determined Head Hunter" perk combination)!
Once Human: This one might be a bit more controversial. I was really intrigued by the whole "season" mechanic that the game uses, similar to PoE, so I was looking forward to try it out. I installed it, discovered that you can't rebind your interact key to E, and also can't rebind a bunch of other keys, and immediately uninstalled it. Maybe that's a petty reason to uninstall a game, but I really don't feel like changing up my whole gaming muscle memory just for one game.
Palia: Played this one for a handful of hours and, to be honest, I really fail to see the appeal. Maybe it's because I played so many other games in this genre lately, so I've had first-hand experience with how nice a well thought-out crafting and gathering system can feel, but both the crafting and the gathering in this game just feel so tedious. With gathering, you just hold left mouse at a gathering node for 15 seconds until it's done. As for crafting: like most survival crafting games, you first need to refine your materials before you can use them in most crafts. Refining anything, however, takes an exorbitant amount of time, much longer than any other game in this genre that I've played. You need to wait 30 real-time minutes to craft a simple table, for heaven's sakes. As far as I know, there are also no mounts or any other way to get around the massive map faster, so you end up spending a majority of the time sprinting back and forth between your base and the gathering nodes. There's a button to instantly return to your home, but it's on a 30-minute cooldown.
I will say that all the outfits in the shop look fantastic. That's the one thing I really liked about the game – whatever team is responsible for designing the clothes, they're absolutely on point. A lot of games could take a page from Palia in that regard. Unfortunately, all outfits except for the starting ones are cash shop only, with limited dyeing, so even if I continued to play the game, I couldn't see myself ever buying one of those outfits.
Dune: Awakening: Currently my main groove. The game is very buggy, but the devs are continuously improving it and it's coming along very nicely. This game definitely has the best new-player experience out of any survival crafting game I've played. The first 60-80 hours feature a near-perfect progression for this genre. The endgame does have quite a few problems, but again – they're working on it. I'm optimistic they'll find a way to fix the endgame and make it feel fun and rewarding for everyone in the future.
Abiotic Factor: I recently found this gem, and holy crap. I only have about 10 hours in the game so far, but I just cannot put it down. This game perfectly encapsulates why I prefer indie games over triple A games. The game is only 5 GBs in size, and yet it's more complex, more well thought-out, more atmospheric, more bug-free, and a dozen other adjectives, than most triple A games that have released in recent years. I cannot praise this game enough, and I'm sure I'll praise it even more when I'm done. If you've ever wanted to play Half Life, but not as an omnipotent security guard but as a hapless scientist in a survival crafting game, this game is it. Or if you just want to play a survival crafting game without the classic gathering node system (in this game you get materials through scavenging and foraging, not chopping down trees or picking at rocks).
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
erithaea Link ParentI don't know if you've already tried this, but you could try Mist Raven or the umbrella. Both fantastic defensive prosthetics. I like Mist Raven in particular, since it allows you to do lightning...I don't know if you've already tried this, but you could try Mist Raven or the umbrella. Both fantastic defensive prosthetics. I like Mist Raven in particular, since it allows you to do lightning reversals without taking damage.
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Comment on Silksong’s real final boss: The translator who broke his NDA and wrote like a dead poet in ~games
erithaea LinkAs a software developer, this incident highlights my biggest concerns with hiring external translators to localize the text in your application: if you don't personally speak the language, how can...As a software developer, this incident highlights my biggest concerns with hiring external translators to localize the text in your application: if you don't personally speak the language, how can you verify that the translation is actually good? Sure, you can run a few samples through Google Translate, but that will at best tell you if the translation approximately contains the content you wanted, not if the words, structure, etc. are what you were going for. I'd be interested to hear what others' experiences are with third-party localizations.
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Comment on Silksong’s real final boss: The translator who broke his NDA and wrote like a dead poet in ~games
erithaea Link ParentI haven't played Silksong, but as far as I could tell there are no spoilers in this article.I haven't played Silksong, but as far as I could tell there are no spoilers in this article.
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Comment on Make new friends here! in ~life
erithaea Link ParentYeah, I was going to say – it would be much harder for me to find a Billy Talent song that isn't still relevant than to name the ones that are (at least as far as the songs criticizing society go...Yeah, I was going to say – it would be much harder for me to find a Billy Talent song that isn't still relevant than to name the ones that are (at least as far as the songs criticizing society go – BT does have a few songs like For You or Afraid of Heights that don't do that, but I still love them too).
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Comment on Make new friends here! in ~life
erithaea Link ParentWriting a public introduction is definitely not a requirement to participate! It's completely okay to just wait for people to write their posts, then to send a DM to anyone whose post piques your...Writing a public introduction is definitely not a requirement to participate! It's completely okay to just wait for people to write their posts, then to send a DM to anyone whose post piques your interest. That way you'll keep your conversations completely private.
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Comment on Make new friends here! in ~life
erithaea Link ParentCompletely agree with this. I don't have kids (or any plans for any in the near future), but this is definitely also one of my fears. I'm guessing most of us grew up in a world where smartphones...Terrified of the influence silicon valley tech will have on my kids
Completely agree with this. I don't have kids (or any plans for any in the near future), but this is definitely also one of my fears. I'm guessing most of us grew up in a world where smartphones either didn't exist yet or were still considered luxury goods. I honestly don't know what kind of person I'd be if I'd been exposed to the full breadth of the internet at that kind of age... probably not a better one, especially with the state of the internet today.
And the worst part is, you can't even control or curtail your kids' phone/internet usage either, because then they'll either be ostracized by their peers, or their peers will be in full control of your children's exposure to the internet, which is really not something I would want.
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Comment on Make new friends here! in ~life
erithaea Link ParentA fellow game sales enjoyer, I see. I'm the same way. I never buy games at full price unless there's a substantial risk I'd end up getting passively spoiled about story or other content by...A fellow game sales enjoyer, I see. I'm the same way. I never buy games at full price unless there's a substantial risk I'd end up getting passively spoiled about story or other content by browsing the internet. I waited half a year for the Final Fantasy XVI PC version to go on sale before I bought it, despite being a big Final Fantasy fan.
What are the last games you purchased and what did you think of them? Any recommendations?
I agree with this. When the subjective emotional response fades, objective reflection takes its place. I find that it actually tends to deepen my bond with the other person, because considering why they behaved the way they did allows me to understand them and where they're currently at in life much better.