secret_online's recent activity
-
Comment on Games for non-gamers in ~games
-
Comment on Jet Lag: Schengen Showdown | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentIt's maybe easier to think about it in terms of three states: unclaimed, claimed, and locked. All countries start unclaimed. The first team to step foot in the country will claim it. Claiming a...It's maybe easier to think about it in terms of three states: unclaimed, claimed, and locked.
- All countries start unclaimed.
- The first team to step foot in the country will claim it.
- Claiming a country gives you the point, but it's still available to be locked by the other team completing the challenge first.
- The second team to step foot in the country does not claim it as it is already claimed. It's a first-come-first-served kind of deal.
- Each team can attempt the challenge once to try and lock the country to their team (keeping the point if they claimed it, or stealing the point if the other team had claimed it).
- Once locked, the other team can't flip it back.
-
Comment on Steam Next Fest 2025 - February 24 to March 3 in ~games
secret_online LinkWanderstop is the main one for me. Davey Wreden + music by C418 instantly piques my interest, and playing the demo it seems like it's going to be great. The Talos Principle: Reawakened probably...Wanderstop is the main one for me. Davey Wreden + music by C418 instantly piques my interest, and playing the demo it seems like it's going to be great.
The Talos Principle: Reawakened probably didn't need to happen, but I appreciate some of the little things from The Talos Principle 2 coming to the original. If you find all the stars in the demo and play the extra level you'll discover probably the biggest quality-of-life feature of them all.
I'ts not all roses, I still dislike the graphical sidegrade from switching to Unreal.
- TAA plus upscaling (doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off?) leads to blurry artifacts while moving, which you do a lot of in a puzzle platformer.
- Reflections are screen-space, which is incredibly obvious when you have trees in-between you and water.
- BLOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM
That said, I'm still going to play it. Talos will always have a special place in my heart. Its story has no right being that good for the team that built it, and I hope that this remaster brings it to a wider audience.
-
Comment on WANDERSTOP | PC, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S launch trailer in ~games
secret_online LinkI played about an hour of the demo last night. I knew pretty quickly that it's going to hit me hard. I never really got into the cosy game scene, but this might just be able to do it. The writing...I played about an hour of the demo last night. I knew pretty quickly that it's going to hit me hard. I never really got into the cosy game scene, but this might just be able to do it.
The writing is definitely a lot more heavy handed than Wreden's previous work (especially compared to The Beginner's Guide), but that may end up being in the game's favour. It's not really something I can judge fairly after only one hour.
C418 nails it with the music again. If you only exposure to them is through Minecraft I can definitely recommend listening to their other albums (especially Excursions).
-
Comment on Tactics fans: What do you think of turn order? in ~games
secret_online (edited )LinkI'm going to talk about the turn order mechanics in Divinity: Original Sin 2 (absolutely not a tactics game, definitely a more traditional RPG). Not just because I love the game (and will take...I'm going to talk about the turn order mechanics in Divinity: Original Sin 2 (absolutely not a tactics game, definitely a more traditional RPG). Not just because I love the game (and will take nearly any opportunity to talk about it), but because I find its initiative system interesting. Note I said interesting and not good. It has issues, but I like it enough as another strategic element within the game's systems.
Initiative is stat based. Each point in Wits gives you one point in initiative, and random gear can have some amount of bonus initiative based on rarity. Higher stats means go earlier. Except that's not what happens because of the first interesting thing that D:OS2 does.
Initiative alternates between teams. The character with the highest initiative overall will still go first in the round (barring scripted first round initiative on some fights), but the rest of the characters will alternate. Say you're in a fight between your party (A) of four people and an enemy team (B) of six. Let's say that one of the members of your team has the highest initiative, which then means the initiative order will look like ABABABABBB. If one of the enemies had the highest overall, then it would be BABABABABB
This system has a couple of consequences:
- Wits investment only matters relative to other members of your party. Figure out what order you want characters to go in, put enough Wits in to get that order, then don't worry about it. A 10 initiative character can appear in the turn order before a 20 initiative enemy as long as the enemy team has that many more high Wits characters.
- Low initiative enemies can appear in the turn order before your higher initiative party members. Again, the turn order always alternates between teams.
The most interesting thing to me is a little button to the right of the "End turn" button: Delay. If you haven't taken an action in your turn, you can hit the Delay button to put yourself at the end of the initiative order. Say the second person in your party hits delay; the turn order for that turn will look like ABBABABBBA, as they've moved from their spot to the end. What's more interesting is what happens when multiple people hit Delay, as you quickly find out that the delayed turns happen in reverse initiative order. I suspect the reason for this was pragmatic: it prevents players from being in an endless loop of delaying past each other.
Delaying becomes a real strategic decision: you're giving the enemies an opportunity to attack and possibly freeze/stun/knockdown/charm you, but in return you can co-ordinate moves more easily with your party members. My favourite thing to do was ensure my character had the highest initiative in the fight (the extra crit chance from Wits didn't hurt) and delay my turn to the end of turn 1. I'd then have my turn at the end of turn 1, but since my character had the highest initiative they'd be right at the top of round 2, allowing me to set off some combinations of skills that would have been riskier if my turns were a full turn apart.
The reason I bring this system up isn't because it's the best thing in the world. Every time I've played the game with a friend I've had to explain the quirks of the initiative system and why the enemies are getting so many turns in a row (it's because we're outnumbered and they all have to go at the end. You could have delayed your turn but that would have put you at the end and you wouldn't have teleported Gwydian Rince out of the Necrofire and back into the Dome. For the second time. I forgot to save again, so if we reloaded we'd be back at the start. Yes, those ones are immune to fire. Uh, sorry. Just had a flashback). I bring it up because two small decisions (alternation and delaying) brought a new dimension to what is a pretty staple feature of RPGs. There are ways of adding mechanical depth to the system without ripping it out or overhauling, but since it is so integral it's hard to get right.
-
Comment on Funny output from Claude.ai: a codeblock in a question about an early rennaissance theological work in ~comp
secret_online LinkIt's important to remember what LLMs are: incredibly good autocomplete. While they are fundamentally different to your phone's autocomplete, they still do the same job: guess the next word (token,...Did Claude write a script to generate its own response?
It's important to remember what LLMs are: incredibly good autocomplete. While they are fundamentally different to your phone's autocomplete, they still do the same job: guess the next word (token, but whatever) over and over to make a response.
Like with your phone, tweaks can be made to what next word predictions might be. Claude is often used for generating code, so during training answers with code may get rated higher in more situations, leading to more code appearing in its outputs.
The most obvious thing to me here, as a developer, is in the code in the response itself.
- The first part would read files from the computer, and that's not how LLMs work. There isn't a library of billions of text files for them to read (and this is ignoring the fact that that's not how you read files, but it sure does look like a way you could), so this isn't code that a system around an LLM would be evaluating.
- The second part starts with a comment explaining that if there was no file content the code should instead search the internet. It then does not search the internet and instead prints a hard-coded reference, as if the LLM finally prioritised its prompt over whatever next-word journey it had gone on before.
What I'm guessing happened was that the marker for starting a code block got high enough in the probability ranking that it got chosen as the next "word", and since the previous part of the response is part of the input to getting the next "word" it started writing code because that's what goes in a code block. Since it was stuck in code mode, it eventually output a hard-coded reference as a way of fulfilling the prompt, albeit in an unusual way due to what came before in the response.
-
Comment on What are your favourite time-loop based books, movies and video games? in ~talk
secret_online (edited )Link ParentThere are some incredibly gut-punching moments in the game. The one that got me was on Brittle Hollow. KOUSA: We can hear the other escape pods' distress signals, which gives me hope. Foli, are...There are some incredibly gut-punching moments in the game. The one that got me was on Brittle Hollow.
KOUSA:
We can hear the other escape pods' distress signals, which gives me hope. Foli, are you there? I am unsure how to survive in this place without you.
KOUSA:
(I am unsure how to be me without you.)
To offset that, some wisdom from my favourite Aunt, Pye (much to Idaea's dismay):
PYE:
Mission: Science compels us to explode the sun!
-
Comment on What are your favourite time-loop based books, movies and video games? in ~talk
secret_online Link ParentI knew Outer Wilds would be high on this post, so I planned to come in with The Forgotten City. Seems I got beaten to that too. I'd played the Skyrim mod a couple of times before the standalone...I knew Outer Wilds would be high on this post, so I planned to come in with The Forgotten City. Seems I got beaten to that too.
I'd played the Skyrim mod a couple of times before the standalone game, so I knew the story and ending. It was interesting to see how they adapted the story into something new, taking cues from human history instead of Skyrim's lore.
Spoilers for the game
In particular I liked the sequence where you go down under the city to find the Greek city, then the Egyptian one, then the Sumerian one. There's a very human story told through that part.
The spooky zone™ was spooky enough. When I played it in Skyrim for the first time it definitely gave me a scare, but this time knowing what was coming it was just creepy. Creepy and gruesome. Good execution.
Also I love the Karen/Charon reveal. I have since used it in a D&D one-shot to great effect.
As you said the game is a bit rough around the edges, but once you look past that it's a wonderful little game so clearly made with love, and anyone who likes time loops (i.e. everyone in this thread) should play it.
-
Comment on Deep Rock Galactic tips and tricks? in ~games
secret_online LinkRock and stone! Others here have mentioned the difficulty. I spent a loooong time playing Haz 2 missions before going to Haz 3, and I pretty much consistently play Haz 4 these days. Haz 2 is good...Rock and stone!
Others here have mentioned the difficulty. I spent a loooong time playing Haz 2 missions before going to Haz 3, and I pretty much consistently play Haz 4 these days. Haz 2 is good for learning game mechanics, as there's just enough pressure from the bugs that you can't just be idle, but not too much to overwhelm.
When I've brought new dwarves into the fold there's an order in which I introduce new ideas to them.
- Assignments. The terminal is near the map selector and the ramp to the drop pod. The first few assignments are good at showing you what the mission types are, and you should pretty much always have an assignment selected.
- Gameplay. To start, just focus on core gameplay. Mining resources, traversing with your selected dwarf (each has a niche), shooting bugs, and finding the dirt walls. That last one is a very useful skill to have.
- Classes. After a few rounds, try switch it up. The game encourages you to play multiple classes eventually. Scout zips around, Gunner can protect key locations like resupplies and reviving teammates, Engineer is good at area denial (and later on out guns the Gunner), and Driller drills and commits war crimes.
- The weapons terminal. You'll be spending a lot of time trying things out. Buy some upgrades for your weapons, see how they play, then try something else.
- Assignments pt. 2. You should have assignments to unlock new weapons by now. Each weapon is unique and fits into the game in its own way. You'll also have assignments to unlock other terminals, so do those too.
- Gameplay pt. 2. You'll be more familiar with the game now, just keep going at it. Try Haz 3, it'll be a handful compared to earlier hazard levels, but it's not unfair. If you're coming out of most Haz 3 missions alive, stick with it.
- Leveling. You might've noticed there are two leveling systems: red and blue. You get XP every mission (unrelated to the season XP) and this fills up the red level meter. Every red level gives you a segment on the blue level indicator (hexagon top left). Three segments and you get a blue level. Red levels go up to 25 for each dwarf, whereas the blue level is shared for your entire character.
- Assignments pt. 3. When a dwarf reaches red level 25, playing them is not going to get you anything. It's at this point you will have a promotion assignment. Completing the promotion assignment and going to the promotion terminal in the Memorial Hall will reset the red level of that dwarf to 0 and give you a nice shiny star. You will keep your upgrades, so don't be afraid. You will be doing this often.
- Matrix cores. Matrix cores are used to unlock overclocks, which are a new type of upgrade for your weapons. They range from stat motifications to outright mechanical changes that completely change how you play the game. You'll earn blank cores from doing the weekly core hunt assignment and deep dives (which you'll have just unlocked). These can be turned into specific cores by completing events in missions. You'll definitely have seen them. Insert the key, do the objective, place blank cores, select a thing. Then back in the space rig, go to the forge and make that core into an overclock.
- Deep dives. These are 3 missions in a row with resources shared between the missions. These change weekly and are seeded, so they're the same every time you do one for that week. Completing it for the first time that week will give you more matrix cores.
- Seasonal content. Don't start caring about it too much until this point. You can go back and play any of the past seasons at any time, and your progress will be saved if you switch out of it.
Good luck out there, miner! You'll need it.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Survival Weekly in ~games
secret_online Link ParentThanks for thinking it through so thoroughly. I'll definitely be keeping what you and @GravySleeve have written in mind in the future. It'll probably be a couple of game updates down the line, as...Thanks for thinking it through so thoroughly. I'll definitely be keeping what you and @GravySleeve have written in mind in the future. It'll probably be a couple of game updates down the line, as right now I want to support 1.21.1 as well and that backport is a pain so I don't want to be adding any features right now.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Survival Weekly in ~games
secret_online (edited )Link ParentI did think of doing that, but only a little too late. It's something I may revisit later. Out of curiosity, how do you think that interaction should work? Would you get 4 tiny flowers when...I did think of doing that, but only a little too late. It's something I may revisit later.
Out of curiosity, how do you think that interaction should work? Would you get 4 tiny flowers when breaking a flower with the Florists' Shears, or would you right click like shearing a sheep (except this time it's a block)? It's maybe worth pointing out that there already is a right click effect for the Florists' Shears to remove a tiny flower from a garden block, so there is precedent for right click interactions. If it is a right click interaction, does it pop items out or convert the flower block into a garden?
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Survival Weekly in ~games
secret_online (edited )Link ParentNope, it just uses durability (which I sneakily added in one of the screenshots on Modrinth). That's actually why I added the Florists' Shears item. My first draft of the recipe used regular...Does the recipe for the 4 tiny flowers consume the florist shears?
Nope, it just uses durability (which I sneakily added in one of the screenshots on Modrinth). That's actually why I added the Florists' Shears item. My first draft of the recipe used regular shears, but when I was testing it ate the shears. It turns out recipe remainders (like empty buckets in the cake recipe) are defined per item type, so if I hacked in a recipe remainder for shears it would affect every recipe that includes shears, even from other mods, so the least destructive thing for me to do was add a new item.
If possible, I'd recommend making it so the florist shears can be used just like regular shears, but only on flowers, and have them wear down over time.
I'm not exactly sure what you're suggesting here. Do you mind elaborating?
Sort of how you can duplicate the two-tall flowers with bonemeal.
You can also use bonemeal directly on Tiny Garden blocks to duplicate one of the flowers inside the garden. If there's an empty space in the garden then it'll fill that spot, otherwise pop out an item (like the 2-tall flowers do).
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secret_online Link ParentOh awesome! Thanks again for your help. I honestly had no idea where to start with the block particles, so you saved me a lot of error.Oh awesome! Thanks again for your help. I honestly had no idea where to start with the block particles, so you saved me a lot of
trial anderror. -
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secret_online LinkThe Minecraft mod I've been working on over the past few weeks is released! Modrinth Curseforge Someone from the Fabric modding server took the time to test it and found a couple of things I'd...The Minecraft mod I've been working on over the past few weeks is released!
Someone from the Fabric modding server took the time to test it and found a couple of things I'd missed, so I'm working on a little patch release to follow. After that I want to backport it to 1.21.1 at which point it'll basically be complete. I do want to maintain it for at least a year or to, so here' hoping Mojang doesn't do any gigantic rewrites in between now and then.
-
Comment on 40 gods, 40 hours in ~creative
secret_online Link ParentWorship in secret, huh? Fits with my username I guess. The first half, at least. I'm a little curious as to what effect the Divine Chromas have had on the world, why they are so revered, and I...Worship in secret, huh? Fits with my username I guess. The first half, at least.
I'm a little curious as to what effect the Divine Chromas have had on the world, why they are so revered, and I guess what role VIOSCARNON specifically had in creating the interaction in the original reply.
-
Comment on Tildes Minecraft Survival Weekly in ~games
secret_online (edited )LinkSo most of this week's Minecraft time has been spent on something else instead of on the server, but I did take some time to give James a new home. James is a camel that Creesch brought over to my...So most of this week's Minecraft time has been spent on something else instead of on the server, but I did take some time to give James a new home.
James is a camel that Creesch brought over to my place, so I of course needed to build something for him. Instead of just making a generic stable I instead built James' Watering Hole. James is behind the bar and seems to take frequent breaks, but the patrons don't mind. They're all too distracted by whatever that polar bear is singing.
This was another opportunity to play with lighting. I kept the entrance light mostly for the path outside, but the centre of the bar is light level 1. There's light directly over the polar bear to draw attention to them, and their clothes are actually a gradient from white to light grey just to sell the spotlight effect even more. In fact, that's why I chose the polar bear head: it was the lightest one I found.
-
Comment on 40 gods, 40 hours in ~creative
secret_online LinkI enjoy the Divine Chromas are just ROYGBIV with an N at the end for what I assume to be the absence of colour, given the start of that name. Let's hear about VIOSCARNON.I enjoy the Divine Chromas are just ROYGBIV with an N at the end for what I assume to be the absence of colour, given the start of that name.
Let's hear about VIOSCARNON.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secret_online LinkMy (no-longer-quite-so) little Minecraft mod is coming along. It's taken a lot of code, potentially more than it should have, but one of my goals was making it fit in with the vanilla game and...My (no-longer-quite-so) little Minecraft mod is coming along. It's taken a lot of code, potentially more than it should have, but one of my goals was making it fit in with the vanilla game and that means making sure all possible interactions work as intended.
It turns out the combinatorial explosion of possible states the block can be in still exists, but it's something the game figures out at launch rather than in my code. That screenshot is from a debug world that lists out every block in every possible block state and organises it in a square. I bumped my render distance up to the maximum of 32 chunks and it's still probably larger than two entire render distances in each direction. I've also got to a place where I'm happy with all of the models/textures, which you can also see in that screenshot. It took a while, but I think all of the variations fit in nicely with the game's style.
It's probably not too long before I release this mod, I'm starting to think about things like mod descriptions and screenshots and icons and showcases and all the rest of that stuff. It's been fun to work on, but I'm definitely ready to release the 1.0 version and let it exist for a while.
-
Comment on Jet Lag: Hide + Seek Japan | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentFinale spoilers It took me a while to actually watch this one. My usual watching partner had guests over at theirs and then may have caught COVID, so they weren't really around to watch (they are...Finale spoilers
It took me a while to actually watch this one. My usual watching partner had guests over at theirs and then may have caught COVID, so they weren't really around to watch (they are feeling better).
Adam and Ben definitely had a good strategy for seeking on this one. Where they were also made it much easier to chop the area down, leading to them getting close to Sam with relatively few hindrances. Of course that all changed when Sam played that Move.
I do think it was a mistake for Sam to just go by feeling when using the Move card. I am the kind of person who would have spent all of that time just planning where I'd go when I used it. He had all of that time to figure out what a good move would be, and I get the feeling that that's going to annoy a lot of people. It ended up working better than it had any real reason to, and that's
The editing at the end was odd. It suddenly changes from the back-and-forth between hider and seekers to just following the seeker. When viewing I thought it might have just been an artistic choice, keeping the viewers in the dark of Sam's true location, but no. Turns out that Sam's audio got messed up right near the end so this was their solution for not having that.
Overall, a decent finale, for what was an amazing season of Jet Lag. This is definitely one you can show to friends to get them into the series, it's a pretty easy concept to understand with just enough added on top to make it interesting. It's my favourite season for sure, and that's hopefully accounting for recency bias.
Also, Tom Scott in the next season? That's going to be fun. If past experience is anything to go by he'll be intensely focused on the game.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secret_online (edited )LinkI'm continuing my next Minecraft mod that I started in last week's thread (effectively being able to put multiple small flowers into the same block space). So much of the game is driven by JSON...I'm continuing my next Minecraft mod that I started in last week's thread (effectively being able to put multiple small flowers into the same block space). So much of the game is driven by JSON files, but there's also a lot that is based on static references which is completely different from the code I'm used to writing.
As I was implementing the first flower type I realised how the multipart model system worked, which meant I wouldn't get a combinatorial explosion of blockstate definitions of I tried to allow mixing of flower types. So that's what I've done, skipped over the slightly easier version to go straight for what I wanted in the first place. Was it a good idea? By now I think the answer is yes.
The combinatorial explosion problem that is no more
Minecraft has two ways of storing data about blocks: block states and block entities. Block states are good for simple information like which direction a block is facing, while block entities are how you store complex information like inventories. In my case, I wanted to use block states because it's just the right tool for the job.
In particular, my block state has 5 properties defined: an enum for the direction the block is facing, and 4 properties of another enum that defines which flower type is in that position. This flower variant enum (currently) has 17 values (plus an empty value), one for each small flower and one for the existing pink petals block.
The thing about block states is that you need to define them up-front at compile time. It first I was worried that I would have to define each possible combination, so that's 4×(17+17²+17³+17⁴) (edit: fixed maths) which is... too many. If I instead made 17 different block types (one for each flower, then just had an integer property from 1-4 for how many of those are present) then there's only be 4 (directions) × 17 (types of block) × 4 (number of flowers in block) block states in total, which is totally fine. This is how the Pink Petals already work.
It wasn't until I'd been staring at the Pink Petals' block states definition that I saw how the system actually worked. The multipart definitions meant I only needed to check each property for each value once, e.g. if the 3rd flower is a dandelion then include this model when rendering. Of course that then needs to be done for each facing direction, which brings us back to 4 (directions) × 4 (positions) × 17 (variants). That's the same number as above, but I can mix flower types again.
Fabric (the modloader I'm using) has a way of generating these definition files, so I don't have to write it by hand (and possibly include mistakes).
I'm currently dealing with issues when trying to mix my flowers with the base game's Pink Petals. I'm halfway through solving that; I can add pink petals to my new block but the inverse is proving to be trickier. It involves using the mixin system, which I have enough exposure with to not be scared, but perhaps with more time I'll go back to being scared of it.
I'm definitely putting off the hard part (modelling/texturing), so I'd better get on to that before I do all the fun stuff and get left with all the bits I've avoided at the end.
This is a great list, 4 really good games that don't require prior history with games to enjoy them.
Both Golden Idol games are incredible, and the story they weave is just on point. It's also difficult and you need to be looking out for details in the environment to solve each case, then use your knowledge of the prior cases plus the story that is being told through the cases to solve the next one. They're so tightly designed and I love them.
Mild spoilers for both Golden Idol games
I love the whole "sufficiently advanced technology" aspect of the idol (and the ancient Lemurians in general, as shown in the Lemurian Vampire DLC). The second game ramps that up to a whole new level (and is basically required playing for the sequel), and the final few levels of the Sins of New Wells DLC for the sequel are some of the best storytelling in the series so far. I can't wait to see what future DLCs look like.
As for my own recommendation, I think a good first "gamer" game is Portal 2. I think it's a good introduction to first person controls, as the game is really about getting yourself and other puzzle elements into the correct locations. It guides your hand pretty well with introducing first-person controls (it was my first or second first person game, the other being Minecraft), tells a good story, and is still a good puzzle game to this day. The co-op campaign means that an experienced player can help a newer player along, though I do think it's better to start with the main story.