kru's recent activity
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Comment on Key moments from landmark US Supreme Court arguments on Donald Trump’s immunity claims in ~news
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
kru Link ParentFrom TFA: A sinister plot? Maybe not. I could certainly say that it's some garbage added on to something actually important. Funding Ukraine is important. Now the Biden admin is at risk of 170m...The idea that it’s a Republican plot of some kind doesn’t really make sense.
From TFA:
In a move that helped fast-track the measure, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson bundled it with funding for Ukraine, creating a package that most senators would be very unlikely to oppose.
A sinister plot? Maybe not. I could certainly say that it's some garbage added on to something actually important. Funding Ukraine is important. Now the Biden admin is at risk of 170m people getting politicized against it via the tiktok app because of this bundling.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru Link ParentI love punishing coop games. Robinson Crusoe was my favorite for a long time, until spirit island came out. Spirit Island is great. It's the first game where I didn't have to hold back my...I love punishing coop games. Robinson Crusoe was my favorite for a long time, until spirit island came out.
Spirit Island is great. It's the first game where I didn't have to hold back my inclination to quarterback, because I simply couldn't. The search space for each person's decision is so large that I can barely handle optimizing my own options, much less those of an entire group. It's amazing. I wish the game built up to a more grand conclusion, rather than the final turns being playing out the motions of a mostly won game.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru Link ParentIt's odd how accustomed I've become to a game autosaving. Random story: I played the subnautica sequel/expansion "below zero" for about 6 hours in a sitting, then it crashed. No big deal, I...It's odd how accustomed I've become to a game autosaving. Random story: I played the subnautica sequel/expansion "below zero" for about 6 hours in a sitting, then it crashed. No big deal, I thought, surely the game autosaves at regular intervals or at least when I return to a safe area. No such luck. Thankfully, I was able to cheat my way back to where I left off and enjoy the rest of the experience.
But, yeah, a good auto-saving regimen is now a requirement for modern games.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru LinkI got Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga from the humble choice monthly. It's a pretty good turn-based combat, some mix of advance wars and ogre battle. It's well balanced, good presentation. But...I got Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga from the humble choice monthly. It's a pretty good turn-based combat, some mix of advance wars and ogre battle. It's well balanced, good presentation. But it's plagued with QoL issues that, I assume, stem from limitations of its choice of engine. Micromanaging the army in between missions is dreadful. The story and dialogue is amateurish, but passable. The meat of the game, the tactical combats, is super solid and worth the experience.
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Comment on Kingdom Come: Deliverance II -- coming 2024 in ~games
kru LinkI recently played through KCD1 again (2nd time through). I hope they make combat interesting, rather than realistic in the sequel. The KCD1 combat was so dull, once all of the combos and tricks...I recently played through KCD1 again (2nd time through). I hope they make combat interesting, rather than realistic in the sequel. The KCD1 combat was so dull, once all of the combos and tricks are given to the player, that I actually dreaded entering fights because of the monotony. I ended up doing stealth takedowns whenever possible in both runs just to avoid the tedium of fights. Realism? Maybe. Fun? Meh.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru Link ParentA harder or easier start (start as a squad, start with some skills) doesn't change too much about the overall experience, imo. If you're finding the initial early game dull or uninteresting,...A harder or easier start (start as a squad, start with some skills) doesn't change too much about the overall experience, imo. If you're finding the initial early game dull or uninteresting, definitely try a start that might be more to your liking.
I did the wanderer start. I spent the very beginning part of my game mining copper outside of the Hub. Fill up my inventory with copper (more valuable than iron) and then sell it at the bar in the Hub. When the bar at the hub ran out of cash, there's another bar not too far away, and if they ever managed to run out of cash, I'd trek to the nearby town Squin to sell.
I spent about half an hour of real time, running at double and triple speed, just mining and selling to earn a stock of food and cash supply. This might sound boring, but it wasn't. While my character was dilligently hammering away at the copper deposit, I was busy swinging my mouse around, scanning the horizon, looking at the groups of wanderers passing by. Whenever a group would get within sight, I'd check them out and try to see if they were hostile, and if so, would their path cross close enough to my mining spot to see me? Could I outrun them if that happened, or at least get to the safety of the guards in time to avoid being kidnapped by slavers?
All of that provided enough tension and interest to keep me the player occupied. Meanwhile, my character was building up valuable skills in laboring, athletics, strength and stealth (because of course I was sneaking around constantly).
If you're really struggling to get into Kenshi, I'd recommend watching a few episodes of an LP to get some ideas on how to approach it. I watched the first 8 episodes of this one before I decided that Kenshi might be fun for me, and starting my own run.
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Comment on Embezzlers are nice people in ~finance
kru Link ParentThis is great. The acid test story actually caused me to reach out to my own lawyers about a fee-paying clause in our own contract (I am currently in negotiation with some VCs). So, thanks for...This is great. The acid test story actually caused me to reach out to my own lawyers about a fee-paying clause in our own contract (I am currently in negotiation with some VCs). So, thanks for this.
Also, the ordering of the articles is a tad funny. It's one of those things you'd expect from a family law office or small dentist's website. Heh.
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Comment on What makes someone a "decent" person to you? in ~talk
kru LinkMy minimum standard is someone who doesn't attempt to subvert or impede another decent person's pursuit of happiness. In other words, live and let live. It's an easy standard to meet, but so few...My minimum standard is someone who doesn't attempt to subvert or impede another decent person's pursuit of happiness. In other words, live and let live.
It's an easy standard to meet, but so few actually do.
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Comment on Gold is back — and it has a message for us in ~finance
kru Link ParentGold does have the benefit of being fungible, whereas real estate isn't so much. But this is generally good advice that you give. Although, what do you do if you're worried about the decline of...Gold does have the benefit of being fungible, whereas real estate isn't so much. But this is generally good advice that you give.
Although, what do you do if you're worried about the decline of the dollar's dominance globally?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru Link ParentTunic has a great sense of discovery and nostalgia. I do like the fact that it plays with discovery of mechanics as a primary feature. That is novel and neat. But, it suffers because it only...Tunic has a great sense of discovery and nostalgia. I do like the fact that it plays with discovery of mechanics as a primary feature. That is novel and neat. But, it suffers because it only soft-gates some pretty important features, and that can lead to the player having a frustrating experience. Once the frustration sets in, the joy of discovery can't make up for it.
Details of my specific issues are spoilers.
I played through about two thirds of the game before I realized that I could power up my attacks and defense. I beat most of the bosses like this. Needless to say, it was incredibly frustrating. The way that the game presented the option to power up was incredibly opaque to me for two reasons: Firstly, the initial weapon progression went stick->sword. So I was primed to expect the game to provide me with bigger and badder weapons as I progressed. I wasn't clued in to search for direct power upgrades. Secondly, the actual mechanism to upgrade wasn't clear to me at all. I suspect that if the designer had included more english on that page, instead of purely symbols, I'd have discovered it much earlier. Also, the fact that the content of the pages would change as I played the game might have been an issue here, as well. I was waiting for some of the ???s to turn into useful symbols on their own - as had happened previously.The worst part is that when I finally did discover the powerup mechanic, it felt very hollow and unsatisfying. I discovered it too late, and all my stats went from 1s to 3s and 4s. Where I was previously playing a top-down darksouls game, I found myself playing a pretty easy beat 'em up, by comparison. It honestly ruined the rest of the game for me.
So, the lessons I take away from it are to have actual hard gates on core mechanics like levelling up, and avoid priming the player with a progression path that isn't actually the real progression path.
Tunic is a game where I commend the developer for trying something new and interesting, but my experience was bad and I don't like it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru LinkI stayed away from Kenshi for the longest time because I erroneously thought it was some type of janky dark souls uberhard game. It's more akin to rimworld. In fact, id describe it as rimworld if...I stayed away from Kenshi for the longest time because I erroneously thought it was some type of janky dark souls uberhard game. It's more akin to rimworld. In fact, id describe it as rimworld if rimworld were a janky top down rpg about ninjas and samurais. It's devoured the past few weeks of my life. It's great.
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Comment on Creating an official politics group? in ~tildes
kru Link ParentLeave it. It can help others learn about useful features.Leave it. It can help others learn about useful features.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
kru Link ParentThis is just the expectation of the industry now. I've pitched an rpg project, with a designed play-time of 20-25 hours, to multiple publishers. Every one which expressed interest was along the...I just wish they would get rid of the notion that their game has to be super long
This is just the expectation of the industry now. I've pitched an rpg project, with a designed play-time of 20-25 hours, to multiple publishers. Every one which expressed interest was along the vein of "This is great, but can you give us a revised budget with at least double or possibly triple the expected play time? Thanks." Want to make an rpg? You need money. And the people with money who are funding rpgs all seem to have an expectation that an rpg needs a minimum play time of 80+ hours.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
kru LinkI have so many: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a damn-near masterpiece. And I can't really go into the details of what the game's fatal flaw is without spoilers.The major issue that prevents it...I have so many:
I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a damn-near masterpiece.
Aside from that, the game is amazing for what it is, an incredible story-heavy game with a clever card battle system that is themed in a way such that, once I realized what the cards represented, I was floored.And I can't really go into the details of what the game's fatal flaw is without spoilers.
The major issue that prevents it from being a best of all time for me is that the length of each run is on the order of 15-20 hours, and most of that content will be repeated. This means that a player can easily spend 15 hours of their time to see less than 10 minutes of new content if they're unlucky, or even see zero new content if they're super unlucky. If each new run guaranteed a new content path would be followed, or did some really obvious signposting for new runs to help prevent wasted time, I'd rank this as a downright masterpiece. As it is, it's just pretty darn good.Wyrmspan the dragon-themed spinoff of Wingspan is incredibly well done. But I think that the mechanic where coins can be found from cards in the deck, but coins also give extra turns, is not well balanced given the randomness of the deck. I like the idea of coins giving extra turns for certain always-available actions (such as reaching the end of one of the tracks), but I dislike the idea that a very lucky player can get 4-5 extra turns over another player (this happened in one of my games, instant fun killer waiting around for this last player to finish all of her turns, and this player steamrolled the group by a huge margin - no thank you). Otherwise, the game would be fantastic. But, as it is, I'll not play it again until some fix is implemented because of the huge randomness involved.
Cultist Simulator needs a way to automatically repeat actions, or otherwise reduce the insane repetitious grind from putting the same cards into the same slots for hours on end. The game has a ton of great lore and the discovery aspect is where all of the fun is. It's just sad that those fun parts are buried beneath one of the worst, most boring and repetitive grinds imaginable.
Wildermyth needs longer campaigns. I feel like the amount of time I spend with my lovable crew of characters is too short. Then they defeat the big bad boss (or all perish) and I have to start over. The formula wildermyth uses works very well, but I feel as though there could be more emotional impact if I was able to stay with my characters for longer than the 2-3 hour stint of a single story. (Note: I last played this 3+ years ago, so this issue may not be present anymore, but it was when I played so I'm writing it.)
Tyranny just needed more time in the oven. It's criminally underrated, in my opinion, and was on track to become an excellent example of top-down party RPGs. Story, setting, combat mechanics, all amazing. It just needs more content, bigger maps, more fights, more dialogue choices, and a better conclusion. It might be stretching the idea here, but the single one thing this game needed to reach greatness was more development time.
Finally, Blood on the Clocktower. There isn't actually anything wrong with the game at all. It's utterly fantastic and as perfect a social deduction game as you could want. My only problem with it is that I can't regularly get 8+ people together to actually play it!
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kru LinkThere's been a trend in modern board games, over the past decade or so, towards providing randomness first and then allowing the player to make decisions about how best to apply that randomness to...There's been a trend in modern board games, over the past decade or so, towards providing randomness first and then allowing the player to make decisions about how best to apply that randomness to the game state. For example, the player might roll some dice and then decide where to place the dice on his board, or draw some cards and then decide how best to use those cards with no further randomness involved. I'm very glad that this trend has been becoming more prominent in video games.
Slice and Dice epitomizes this style of gameplay exquisitely. It's a very tactical game that presents the player with a bad situation, and the challenge is to use the party's abilities to find a way out of it. Aside from the initial randomness of the ability dice rolls the decisions afterwards are completely deterministic. There is even an undo button so that you can do a series of actions to see what the results will be, then back out of them to try and find a better path forward. The decision space of each encounter is large, but not so large as to be unwieldy. The designers have hit a sweet spot of short, medium and long term decision making that suits me almost perfectly. I think this game improves on the formula of Slay the Spire roguelikes immensely. While I do enjoy the deck-management of card battlers, I find that I enjoy the dice-management of Slice and Dice even more. It's worth playing the demo for a few runs to get the hang of the game.
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Comment on 'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs in ~games
kru LinkYup. We just had a $12m project cut to be a $10m project at the publishers' request. Then again cut down to $8m, and finally just cancelled. The next few years will not be great for indie game..."I talked to at least five small teams, like 35 [members] and under, during GDC, and they're like: Cuts, cuts, cuts, funding canceled, talks that were going on for a year, canceled," said Casey Yano, the co-founder of Slay the Spire studio Mega Crit. "It sounds like it's shit. We're definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund. [Otherwise] I'd be very, very, very scared right now."
Yup. We just had a $12m project cut to be a $10m project at the publishers' request. Then again cut down to $8m, and finally just cancelled. The next few years will not be great for indie game projects.
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Comment on Is there interest in a board game-focused Discord server? in ~games.tabletop
kru Link ParentIf you want to fill a game of botc, post it on https://boardgameschedule.com/. That's where I check when I want to find an online game.If you want to fill a game of botc, post it on https://boardgameschedule.com/. That's where I check when I want to find an online game.
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Comment on Larian Studios won't make Baldur's Gate 3 DLC, expansions, or Baldur's Gate 4 in ~games
kru LinkMakes sense. WOTC can be a pain in the ass to deal with, like almost any IP owner is. I'd be sad if they went back to do more divinity in the weird cartoonish style of divinity. I enjoyed BG3 more...Makes sense. WOTC can be a pain in the ass to deal with, like almost any IP owner is.
I'd be sad if they went back to do more divinity in the weird cartoonish style of divinity. I enjoyed BG3 more than the divinity OS series because it took itself seriously and treated the player as an adult. With D:OS series, almost everything had this weird feeling as though it was all trying to be tongue-in-cheek or lampoon something that I couldn't quite grasp. Fun enough games, to be sure, but BG3 was a step above them.
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Comment on Donald Trump's lawyers say it is impossible for him to post bond covering $454 million US civil fraud judgment in ~news
kru Link ParentThis was good food for thought, but I don't think Trump (or anyone) should get special treatment here. It happens all the time that penalties are meted out which are later found to have been in...This was good food for thought, but I don't think Trump (or anyone) should get special treatment here. It happens all the time that penalties are meted out which are later found to have been in error (to excessive, or just flat out wrongly applied). There are countless cases where accused people have lost months, years or even decades of their lives due to incorrect judgments. Losing some property is small potatoes in comparison, imo.
There should absolutely be a better system that avoids wrongful judgments. But, given the system we have, Trump should be treated equally. That means that he should pay the judgment (or post bond to stay it). If it is later found, on appeal, that the judgment was too harsh, and his properties were wrongly siezed - oh well.
"Rule for the ages" heh. If I had been in court, I'd have definitely shot myself in the foot with a retort along the lines of, "You're only making a rule until some future court overturns it." As if stare decisis has any merit these days...