payitforward's recent activity
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Comment on Desktop icons are surprisingly hard! in ~comp
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
payitforward Link ParentAha, I didn't know about the budget cuts but it makes a lot of sense in retrospective. Mayhaps I suspected as much. For instance in the final area of the base game (the endlessly looping chasm...Aha, I didn't know about the budget cuts but it makes a lot of sense in retrospective. Mayhaps I suspected as much. For instance in the final area of the base game (the endlessly looping chasm that you can jump into) the game reuses the same architecture over and over but cobbled together in different ways. The enemies and mini bosses are all reruns of previous iterations really. Bit of a shame as the game otherwise has very striking ncounters. The griphon atop the lone tower for instance or the the dragon in the hellfire grove.
The expansion, Bitterblack Isles, unfortunately falls into the same trap. The environments are intricately designed but you'll soon enough recognize the same coutyards and hallways having been copied and pasted. Nevertheless the game here does a better job at concealing this with varied lighting, color tinting and added obstacles. There's also simply more varied gameplay here thanks to a mix of enemy types, difficulty progression and rewards.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
payitforward Link ParentWell in addtion to the exploitative gambling angle that many games now employ I'm weary of micro transactions because they warp the game design space. When you can buy outfits or looks for extra...Well in addtion to the exploitative gambling angle that many games now employ I'm weary of micro transactions because they warp the game design space. When you can buy outfits or looks for extra money the artists are enticed to make the normal gear plain or ugly. The camera perspective and menus might be adjusted to more frequently show you close ups of your characters even if from a gameplay or UI standpoint something else would be expedient. If there's a characters who sells you MTX than the map editor will try to warp the layout of the town so that you frequently walk buy him. A potion that grants you experience or let's you skip straigh to the maximum level will only be bought if the normal leveling process is arduous.And so forth.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
payitforward Link ParentI wouldn't say there is a best class per se, all of them shine in some ways are unique enough to warrant exploration. Striders excel at climbing large creatures, mages at healing, rangers at...I wouldn't say there is a best class per se, all of them shine in some ways are unique enough to warrant exploration. Striders excel at climbing large creatures, mages at healing, rangers at ranged damage, and so forth. The exception might be the warrior vocation with its limited move set of slow winded close range attacks that prove hard to land.
And that's the great thing about Dragon's Dogma: first you can switch your class at any time and even benefit from getting to keep perks you unlocked with one class as another. And lest we forget: you play not as a lone combatant but have a full party of 4 at your back. Admittely, the pawn AI isn't stellar so the player ends up doing most of the lifting yet still it feels quite different from something like Dark Souls where it is all on you.
But yes, magic archers is both versatile and easy to play. One of my favorite skills in the game is ricochet hunter (the arrow that bounces of walls manyfold). It's a complete massacre if you use it in narrow passages and enclosed rooms but quite meek out in the open where it doesn't get to bounce. Then there's the multifold tracking arrow (forgot actual name) which highlights all enemies in the viciniity (even invisible/stealthed ones) once you draw an arrow. The trick is to simply knock the bow whenever entering a new area to scan for enemies but forebear firiing and instead plan a tactical approach instead, hehe. Which hightlights another fun aspect of the game: it pays off to pick and choose your skills accordng to the environments and enemies therein.
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Comment on Linux Distro Recommendations in ~comp
payitforward (edited )LinkLots of people endorsing Mint Linux and I can corroborate that with a personal example: during COVID pandemic my uncle's laptop broke down. He used it for both personal and work affairs. Tech...Lots of people endorsing Mint Linux and I can corroborate that with a personal example: during COVID pandemic my uncle's laptop broke down. He used it for both personal and work affairs. Tech affinity is average, not super knowledgeable but willing to listen and learn. So I helped him set up Linux Mint on an older laptop as a temporary fix and he could make use of it well. We did the installation together and then I ensured that all major apps and hardware he used daily would work.That was easy with Mint and took about an hour. It then also really helped to give him a basic tour of how to search and install new software from the inbuilt app catalog, how to access your files or adjust brightness/loudness etc . Took about another hour, so nothing too deep. Included in that was a very quick tour of the terminal because that's invariably something you'll come up against when using Linux.
After some months he got a new laptop with Windows on it from work and went back to that. But he said that he generally liked Mint and found it easy enough to use as a daily driver.
My take is that for many people the operating system doesn't matter too much as long as they can access their daily workhorses (browser, email, conference/video calls, etc). Mint has broad hardware support and a good on boarding experience in that experience.
Personally I'm a big fan of Kubuntu which ships with the KDE desktop environment but I'm also more of a power user. Beautiful thing about KDE though is that it's layout is quite similar to Windows so many people will feel right at home. You can taylor and customize it to your liking and it offers many sensible ways to enhance productivity but even if you leave everything at the default settings and use it as-is it's a well thought out and pleasant experience.
Edit: choose long term support (LTS) versions if possible. This means your friends have to do larger operating system upgrades only every couple of years.
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Comment on Dragon’s Dogma 2’s combat is sloppy and unrefined — on purpose in ~games
payitforward Link ParentThat's what I loved about DD1: you really have to play as a team to shine. About that though: So in DD1 pawn AI made a huge difference in their effectiveness, but the system behind it is rather...That's what I loved about DD1: you really have to play as a team to shine. About that though:
So in DD1 pawn AI made a huge difference in their effectiveness, but the system behind it is rather cryptic opaque. Your main pawn would be influenced - among others - by the orders you give it but also tactics it learned from your own behavior. So if you've been training your main pawn to rush in head first along side you to play super melee bros the entire game it will retain that AI even if you now make it into a frail ranged spell caster. And it's neither easy nor obvious how to alter that behavior.
I specifically remember keeping on hiring the same rogue pawn simply because he had just the right AI even though there were others of much higher level available.
Unfortunately there wasn't a great way to filter hired pawns for their AI other than simply trying them out.
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Comment on What's a game that you feel is almost great? in ~games
payitforward Link ParentDragon's Dogma was quite close to being great, but not quite. I could have benefited from more patching, for instance: the pawn lending system doesn't favor pawns from players that are still...Dragon's Dogma was quite close to being great, but not quite. I could have benefited from more patching, for instance:
- the pawn lending system doesn't favor pawns from players that are still actively playing enough. since many players sort by all time ranking, the same pawns get lent out over and over again which gives them even more positive ratings. For a new player it's unlikely their creations will get hired at all.
- armor system is mostly linear (not percentage based) and thus quite broken: if your sword does 46 damage and an enemy has 45 armor you'll do 1 damage per hit. Find a sword with 50 damage (a 11% increase over your old one) and you'll now do (50-45=5) damage, a 500% multiplier. There's a reason most RPGs use logarithmic scaling...
- pawn AI has many faults and its hard to understand/inspect the details of how it works. For instance healer pawns often walk right next to the big dragon to cast their lengthy heal animations instead of staying back safely.
- endgame content reuses many assets and tries to come up with some weird lore to justify that. same for bitterblack isles.
- warrior vocation mostly sucks. way too many slow melee attacks with a long windup and limited projection.
That being said: for all its faults it's still a gem in the rough and offers a unique take on the RPG genre. Some of my favorite memories are from simply taking a lantern and wandering off into the landscape at dusk. In many games nighttime is just a color filter but here navigating through the night is truly dark and scary, so much so that it reminds me of the real world. You really have to watch your step as you could easily tumble down a hill at any time. Plus there's different enemies at night time in many locations.
Another great thing is the variety in vocations (classes). Dragon's Dogma doesn't punish you for switching clases midway through, in fact it rewards you for experimenting with all of them.
Perhaps the sequel will truly shine although the inclusion of micro transactions hints at the game going down a dark path.
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Comment on The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming in ~movies
payitforward LinkGuess I'm in the middle space. I want everything digital and don't like stacking boxes and covers at home which just take up space. I cherish the ease of access that digital media brings. For...Guess I'm in the middle space.
I want everything digital and don't like stacking boxes and covers at home which just take up space. I cherish the ease of access that digital media brings. For instance you can search through thousands of files in less than a second to see whether you own a particular movie or whether there's subtitles for it. Doing this with physical media is much, much more cumbersome.
On the other hand I don't like older media no longer being available as is the case on subscription services. The consumer not having access to the underlying files is the real culprit here imo.
The best of both worlds is to have everything online but being able to download copies of it. That's why I prefer to purchase from sites like bandcamp which give you the actual music files and they are yours. And avoid any service that tries to lock you into a proprietary app // eco system.
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Comment on What's the deal with the popcorn button? in ~food
payitforward Link ParentOn the stove top oil is a sheer necessity although you only need a thin film that barely covers the bottom of the receptacle. Oils are all different though. For cooking/frying you will want...On the stove top oil is a sheer necessity although you only need a thin film that barely covers the bottom of the receptacle.
Oils are all different though. For cooking/frying you will want something that can get really hot without smoking. The products of (partial) combustion are definitely not healthy. With that restriction many of the most healthy contenders like cold pressed olive or linseed oil are unfortunately already out. Coconut oil still works nicely and even imparts some flavor. Sunflower cooking oil is neutral in taste and also works well.
For my microwave popcorn I don't use any oil whatsoever and it still has great taste. Sometimes I sprinkle it with cinnamon, pepper or lemon juice.
As far as snacks go I consider it quite healthy. Of course it shouldn't replace a proper meal but compared to something else you might snack on like a chocolate bar it's upper echelon.
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Comment on Facebook does not let me delete my account in ~tech
payitforward Link ParentI certainly remember that perhaps 13 years ago acquaintances of mine could tag me with full name in group photos before I even had an account there. And not only that. Different people could tag...I certainly remember that perhaps 13 years ago acquaintances of mine could tag me with full name in group photos before I even had an account there. And not only that. Different people could tag me in different photos and that would point to the same database entity (so not just 2 incidentally aligned strings). Thus you could click on my name in a tagged photo and it would open up an empty mock up profile with a reminder that I wasn't on Facebook "yet" with a convenient button to send me an invitation via email. So they could get know my email address (or at least one of them). And the more people tag you and send you that reminder using the same address the more confident Facebook can be that they've got the right guy. The photo meta data itself also provides valuable information. If you frequently get tagged with people from the same city there's a chance you also live there. And if you've been tagged with the same last name as somebody else in the picture you're likely related. And hey if people send you invitations to different addresses they can now cross link any figments they already have in their database.
So basically in such a scenario the site creates a profile for the "missing" person and once that person creates the account it claims the profile. That is how you can sign up and immediately get suggestions for friends, former school mates, venues, employers, interest groups, news tags and so forth.
But remember even if one doesn't sign up knowing a personal email address makes it much easier to track people across the web, integrate relevant information and build a profile for the person; all of that even without even having a real Facebook account.
Now as mentioned that was more than a decade ago but I suspect they have only refined their methods since then European GDPR non withstanding.
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Comment on What's the deal with the popcorn button? in ~food
payitforward LinkI've looked at quite a few microwaves before purchasing my current (and 1st) model but none of them had popcorn buttons. ¿Is that an American thing? I do like to eat popcorn but here you typically...I've looked at quite a few microwaves before purchasing my current (and 1st) model but none of them had popcorn buttons. ¿Is that an American thing?
I do like to eat popcorn but here you typically buy loose kernels and thus get to determine the quantity yourself. It also seems healthier to skip the oil/flat.
As the video explains just listening to the popping frequency slowing down is a pretty reliable proxy. From experimentation I have come to accept that with a microwave I'll always end up with a portion of roughly 1/5 unpopped lest I risk charring. And overcooking is much worse than undercooking when it comes to smell and taste.
From experience there's also a difference from brands and shelf time. Larger, fresher kernels tend to yield better results.
Back when I owned a gas stove I actually found the perfect way for loose kernels (plus oil): you start at a low flame and very gradually increase it until the first pop. Then you instantly maximize the heat and only turn it off once the popping slows considerably. Pouring it out into a bowl for consumption right away completely removes any external heat, so no chance for delayed burning. I guess it works so well because the slow heating gets all kernels uniformly to a high base temperature level. Then they spend minimum time at the temperature were actual burning can occur because they need not wait for their siblings.
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Comment on Favorite out of bounds experience? in ~games
payitforward LinkAs a child I must have spent quite some time in *Super Mario 64 trying to figure out the secrets of a glitch that let's you enter the castle's walls. This one is kind of surreal as you'll land...As a child I must have spent quite some time in *Super Mario 64 trying to figure out the secrets of a glitch that let's you enter the castle's walls. This one is kind of surreal as you'll land next to the castle's main doors but from the inside without triggering the loading zone that would usually transition you to the interior scene. You're stuck in this tiny space unless you walk through the door in which case you'll be outside but also stuck as the outside geometry isn't fully loaded and beyond the door frame there is only vast blackness. You can only exit back through the door in which case you'll be stuck on the inside again. It's hard to explain that's why I linked the short video above. I guess technically you are inside the spaces that the game uses during the short cut scenes that play when Mario enters or exits the main portal. When doing so you can see him walking inside/outside so the map extends just a bit for the cut scene to work but obviously it doesn't load in the entirety of the level.
I've had a strange fascination with this as Mario is now trapped in a strange liminal space forever bound to exit through a door which leads to the other side yet still traps him. Now when I first discovered this I. thought it was some kind of hidden path to further advance the game or unlock more of the castle's secrets. Notably you can only perform this glitch once you unlock the cannon outside the castle necessary to launch you to the necessary height. And that only happens after you completionist the game with 120/120 stars. So it felt like something you had to "unlock" first to be worthy. And even the earliest Super Mario Bros games had places where the map designers let you go out of. bounds to bypass the challenges of a level, access a secret one or warp to a different world entirely. So it felt in tune with the Mario series.
Mind you this was in the days before wide spread Internet adoption were it wasn't so easy to corroborate information online. Sharing secrets or gameplay hints was part of the social experience of playing a game. Today if you are stuck on a puzzle you look up the solution online but back then we asked our neighbors, friends or class mates for a solution.
I also was simply a kid who still thought of a game's world in an immersive, fantastical way (as if the space really existed) rather than from a technical perspective (as a software program). Nevertheless I was just on the brink of being old enough to realize that what I had stumbled upon was probably more so an accidental behind-the-scenes visit more so than a genuine secret.
That was insightful. To the oblivious user desktop icons are something plain that should just work. But there's always so much hidden complexity behind all things computing.
I'm only a novice and occasional coder but this absolves me of some contrition:
Writing code seems so much easier than reading it. I can't be the only one spenden copious time on thinking how minor variables should be named. I do this because I might to readjust a script I wrote months or years later. And at that point I want it to read as autological as possible.
Ironically I like to keep my desktop clean. Just like a physical desktop. If I place something on the desktop it's because it needs attention, but I can only resolve it at a later time.