trobertson's recent activity
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Comment on California Gov. Gavin Newsom commutes all 548 death sentences in ~society
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
trobertson Link ParentI've been playing more and the grind has, if anything, reduced. Only a handful of weapons evolve, near as I can tell. The rusted ones, the wooden club, and the holy sword. Those evolutions are all...I've been playing more and the grind has, if anything, reduced.
Only a handful of weapons evolve, near as I can tell. The rusted ones, the wooden club, and the holy sword. Those evolutions are all worth doing, as they make the weapon magical (and if you prefer the non-magical version, you can purchase an upgraded version of the base weapon in the shop).
Additionally, there's a (late game, probably) item that I sequence broke to, Puwema's Blessing, which is an amulet that provides a passive health restoration. It's not fast enough to save you if you do stupid things but it's fantastic sustain for a long delve, and it dramatically reduced the number of healing items I need. There are also some mid-game weapons that have life steal, but I don't know how effective they are as I'm using the amulet and haven't felt the need to try them.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
trobertson Link ParentImportantly, there's a dedicated keybind for this maneuver that lets you do this no matter what weapon you have equipped. In addition to the combat uses, this lets you easily do Jump -> Caestus...the Endu sword actually is a very powerful dodge item. Unlike most other weapons, it's secondary attack will push you in whatever direction you are moving in, so long as it has charges. So you can lunge in any direction and its important for the more intense fights.
Importantly, there's a dedicated keybind for this maneuver that lets you do this no matter what weapon you have equipped. In addition to the combat uses, this lets you easily do Jump -> Caestus jump -> airdash(es), which is great for sequence breaking and secret finding.
About:
But it doesn't work when you air-dash with the dedicated key.
It works fine for me.
I'm about 15hrs in and no where close to the tower.
I've finished the tower and opened the Mausoleum (maybe via sequence break; it's easy to airdash over from the tower) and have spent the past few hours completely ignoring it. It turns out that below the tower there is a huge + difficult area which connects to other new areas. And there's an ocean/airdash path to the left of the Water Temple's entrance that takes you to another new area (that is currently kicking my shit in).
This game is huge.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
trobertson Link ParentToo soon to say. I just upgraded another weapon, and I think it'll be 10-15 minutes to get a weapon from base to max, depending on grind spot / enemy weakness to the weapon's damage type. Not...do you feel like the grind is any better or worse than those?
Too soon to say. I just upgraded another weapon, and I think it'll be 10-15 minutes to get a weapon from base to max, depending on grind spot / enemy weakness to the weapon's damage type. Not terrible, and it'll go faster for your main weapons that you regularly use.
Whether that holds true for later in the game, or if it becomes necessary to grind items or character levels, I don't know yet.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
trobertson LinkQueen's Domain is really good (with a couple caveats). I'm 8 and a half hours in and, I think, maybe a quarter of the way through. I'm about to enter the Tower of Knowledge. So I can only really...Queen's Domain is really good (with a couple caveats).
I'm 8 and a half hours in and, I think, maybe a quarter of the way through. I'm about to enter the Tower of Knowledge. So I can only really comment on the beginning of the game.
It's a very dense game in the vein of King's Field. This means there is a lot of combat, and the combat focus is mostly positioning. There is no magically invincible dodge roll so you have to be thinking about positioning at basically all times. In exchange, you can sprint in all directions. This does, however, eat into your stamina - the next most important thing to care about.
The damage you inflict is proportional to the stamina you have at the time of the attack. If you only have 50% stamina, you only deal 50% damage. All attacks, no matter the weapon, consume all of your stamina. This means you are balancing stamina for both positioning and offense, making the otherwise slow-feeling combat gripping and engaging.
The combat pace is immaculate, and it's clear the dev put tons of time into fine-tuning it. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I enjoyed Elden Ring's combat, for example, which I completed 3 times.
The next big positive is the world design. This might be the densest 3D world I've had the privilege of exploring. This might be first area bias (the first area has so much verticality) but I'm really looking forward to further areas.
I was initially skeptical that the game would be very long - when you look around at the size of the island, it seems tiny. But the density of the world has shown me that my concern was misplaced.
As for things I don't like so much, it most comes down to grinding. You don't technically need to do this, but it provides some really powerful benefits.
Weapons level up, and at level 10, some of them "evolve" for lack of a better term. The most impactful for me is the wooden club, which after evolution drops its secondary attack to give you a really powerful heal-over-time on a 5? 10? minute cooldown.
But weapons only level up when you deal damage with them, and this means you will be running areas you've already completed over and over again. It's not horrible - I put on a podcast while doing this, and it's basically only been an hour of the experience so far - but I don't enjoy it.
Grinding provides a few other benefits, like items drops (your primary source of healing), currency drops (a major way to get new weapons), and growing your character level. So it's worth doing, and since I don't like grinding, it's a bit irritating.
Overall
Last year I played Lunacid and thought it was a very strong, maybe pinnacle, entry in the King's Field lineage. Queen's Domain has totally overtaken that spot.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of November 2 in ~society
trobertson Link ParentFor a basically unbiased and ad-free observation of the results, I'm using Wikipedia's pages on the two major election categories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_elections...For a basically unbiased and ad-free observation of the results, I'm using Wikipedia's pages on the two major election categories:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_elections
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections
Here's to hoping things go well.
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Comment on Babylon 5 S2E16: "In the Shadow of Z’ha’Dum" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
trobertson LinkIs this supposed to be in ~games?Is this supposed to be in ~games?
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Comment on Electronic Arts to cut 400 jobs, shut down BioWare in ~games
trobertson Link ParentObligatory upvote for MrBtongue; I wish he still made videos. I still rewatch his "Shandification of Fallout" video every few years (it got taken down from his main channel, but there are reuploads).Obligatory upvote for MrBtongue; I wish he still made videos. I still rewatch his "Shandification of Fallout" video every few years (it got taken down from his main channel, but there are reuploads).
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Comment on Electronic Arts to cut 400 jobs, shut down BioWare in ~games
trobertson Link ParentME2 is weird, being simultaneously a great game in isolation, a terrible successor to the first game, and a terrible, terrible set up for the final game in the trilogy. For me ME2 killed the...ME2 is weird, being simultaneously a great game in isolation, a terrible successor to the first game, and a terrible, terrible set up for the final game in the trilogy.
For me ME2 killed the franchise and I had absolutely no interest in ME3; ME2 squandered the world and story that got developed in the first game. And it changed so many of the characters, not the least of which was Shepard.
ME1 ends with a Reaper attack on Citadel Station, the congregation point of every known civilized species. Only Shepard + crew were able to stave off that attack, and in doing so they revealed the Reaper threat to the whole galaxy. ME2 opens with the council calling the Reapers a myth and a daydream. Shepard, too, seems okay with ignoring the threat of the Reapers (Miranda's ass is much more important, obviously, duh. Genetically engineered to be the perfect ass. I wish I was joking).
I played ME2 twice; the first time through I was confused, because I couldn't find any Mass Effect anywhere inside the game. My second time through I turned my brain off and enjoyed the game for what it is: a character focused Firefly wannabe in the ME universe, crossed with being a "heist-like"; the majority of the game is building a team to do a job.
I'm happy I never played ME3, though. From what I hear ME2 really did kill the narrative of the franchise. ME3's story was rushed as hell, since ME2 didn't have any contribution whatsoever to the story. The "3 colors" ending debacle. The ship now has a robo-ass that Joker can't keep his eyes off (In a game that needs to do 2 games worth of narrative, this was a great use of time, right? Right?). Apparently, there's a space ninja OC do-not-steal. And so on.
But I do agree that, independently of the rest of the franchise, ME2 is a very fun stand-alone game. It's got strong character writing (when you ignore conflicts within returning characters) and it's a pretty good romp around the stars. The mechanics of play are way, way better than the first game. "Everyone" liked it for real and valid reasons.
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Comment on How mods changed video games forever in ~games
trobertson LinkThe actual thesis of the video is "modding is great and lets you fix games + make them better", which is true. The title thesis (at time of comment, "How Mods Changed Video Games Forever") is...The actual thesis of the video is "modding is great and lets you fix games + make them better", which is true. The title thesis (at time of comment, "How Mods Changed Video Games Forever") is totally unsupported.
One of Jakey's weaker videos, but if you haven't modded before (either installing or making mods) it's worth a watch.
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Comment on Wikipedia's list of the best video games: how many have you played, and what's missing? in ~games
trobertson Link ParentThe OG Oregon Trail game was a text adventure, is how. Very limited distribution (a school (singular)), and only developed over the course of two weeks, but the guts of the experience were there....The OG Oregon Trail game was a text adventure, is how. Very limited distribution (a school (singular)), and only developed over the course of two weeks, but the guts of the experience were there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Trail_(1971_video_game)
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Comment on It breaks a village in ~comp
trobertson LinkAn observation of how a change in AI policy has affected the Bevy game engine community in the months since a new AI policy came into effect. As can be inferred from the title, the author, a...An observation of how a change in AI policy has affected the Bevy game engine community in the months since a new AI policy came into effect.
As can be inferred from the title, the author, a long-time Bevy contributor, has had a very negative experience with the changes in the community. Their post describes the new policy's effects on the behavior and health of the development community, and how the changes in the community have directly decreased the author's willingness to continue participating in the Bevy project.
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It breaks a village
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Comment on Overview of the proofs behind the Navier-Stokes $1 million millennium prize problem in ~science
trobertson Link ParentBy design, they are the first type. The Universal approximation theorem, which is the foundational theory in ML/LLMs, is all about universal approximation without care for subject matter knowledge...are these AI solutions more like the prospective prof's, where they just threw more numbers on the board until everything fit expectations regardless of the underlying physics, or our prof, where they actually model the behavior based on principles?
By design, they are the first type. The Universal approximation theorem, which is the foundational theory in ML/LLMs, is all about universal approximation without care for subject matter knowledge or understanding. Quoting wikipedia:
the universal approximation theorems (UATs) state that neural networks with a certain structure can, in principle, approximate any continuous function to any desired degree of accuracy.
Universality is achieved by increasing the number of neurons in the hidden layer, making the network "wider." Other versions of the theorem show that universality can also be achieved by keeping the network's width fixed but increasing its number of layers, making it "deeper."
a.k.a., just chuck more variables at it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
trobertson LinkI have just stopped playing Palworld. I think I'd give it a 6/10; it was a lot of fun in the early hours (9-10/10), but the further I progressed the worse it got. Towards the late game it was just...I have just stopped playing Palworld. I think I'd give it a 6/10; it was a lot of fun in the early hours (9-10/10), but the further I progressed the worse it got. Towards the late game it was just not fun at all (2/10) and the charm of it had worn off, leaving me with no interest in continuing the game.
But the early game is really fun so I made a few different worlds, each with their own settings, to try to extend the fun through to the whole game. Even going so far as essentially cheating through the bad mechanics (crafting + resource farming) with both world settings and mods. In each of those playthroughs I dropped out at about the same point: the need for chromium and coralite.
This is the point where the game is just a grind. Up to this point you can make work stations to passively produce resources. chromium and coralite need to be manually farmed, by you, with no direction provided as to where to find it. Reddit + wikis tell you this, but the manual nature of acquisition turns the game into nothing but resource grind. All of the fun parts go away and you are left with rote monotony. Maybe this is fine in multiplayer, where you can shoot the shit while doing crap labor, but in single player it is a run killer.
I have some other issues with the game, but next to the game-stopper grind those issues don't really matter.
(Except performance: I have a strong machine and had shit-tier performance, and crashes, all throughout my playthroughs. Based on conversations I found while looking for solutions, it appears to be essentially random as to whether a given machine will have good or bad performance.)
Verdict: Worth the twenty-some dollars I spent on it, but I'm done with it for a long, long time.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
trobertson Link ParentGiven that there is not a linear story, you are playing correctly. For me Outer Wilds got better and better as I progressed, peaking at the end of the game. If you are at all intrigued by the...Given that there is not a linear story, you are playing correctly. For me Outer Wilds got better and better as I progressed, peaking at the end of the game. If you are at all intrigued by the stuff you have found then you're doing just fine.
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Comment on GOG added OpenMW and Tamriel Rebuilt into their store for free as mods for TES3 Morrowind in ~games
trobertson Link ParentI readily attest to holding this belief. Narsis (the Grasping Fortune release) is the best Elder Scrolls, hands down. I almost can't believe it's real. And it's not the first example of...Plenty of their newer regions are considered to be better than the base game regions.
I readily attest to holding this belief. Narsis (the Grasping Fortune release) is the best Elder Scrolls, hands down. I almost can't believe it's real.
And it's not the first example of exceptional quality. The releases prior to Grasping Fortune added some Tribunal Temple questlines that showed an incredible understanding of the push and pull of politics on the operation of a religious institution. The various Temples of Bal Foyen, Almas Thirr, and Hlan Oek (all three of which are in the same general region) are each shaped by the forces they live within. These three questlines, considered together, far exceed the depth of understanding in just about any other Elder Scrolls content. And, generally, they are also good quests.
At this point I semi-seriously consider PTR (Project Tamriel + Tamriel Rebuilt) to be the real Elder Scrolls continuation. Bethesda's games feel like bad fanfic in comparison, and I have no hope whatsoever for ES6.
Also, OP, PTR is very active. The Poison Song release was just a couple days ago. It make Great House Indoril joinable and gives it a questline in addition to remaking the region the House occupies. I haven't played it yet, but I'll be doing so within the next couple months.
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Comment on Bethesda, id Software reportedly hit hard by Microsoft layoffs in ~games
trobertson Link ParentEspecially so when the claim is that Bethesda will now focus on core franchises, which include... Doom.Especially so when the claim is that Bethesda will now focus on core franchises, which include... Doom.
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Comment on Mullvad CEO gives ≈€452,000 to the Örebro Party in ~society
trobertson LinkIf you, like me, had no idea what the Örebro party is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party#Ideology I'm still a bit confused on what they are actually trying to accomplish, but I'm (in...If you, like me, had no idea what the Örebro party is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96rebro_Party#Ideology
The ideas of Markus Allard has been described as national conservative and "conservative with a Marxist stamp".[27] Expo has described the Örebro Party as part of a growing left-wing nationalistic movement in Sweden.[28] The party has also been described as both right-wing populist[29] and left-wing populist as well as left-conservative.[30] Party leader Markus Allard was referred to by the Waste Ombudsman at the Swedish Taxpayers' Association as a communist, nationalist and a populist. The chief editor at a local newspaper in Örebro made accusations against the Örebro Party and said that it was his personal opinion that they are "racists, fascists and nazis".[31]
I'm still a bit confused on what they are actually trying to accomplish, but I'm (in my head) putting them in the same bucket I put the "authoritarian left" groups into, as it seems they share a lot of concerning behaviors and views.
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Comment on Bureaucracy is eating the world in ~society
trobertson Link ParentI couldn't help but scoff at those two paragraphs. I don't mean to be rude, but I will be rebutting quite a lot of the claims in the posted snippet. Disclaimer: I'm an American by birth. Do excuse...- Exemplary
I couldn't help but scoff at those two paragraphs. I don't mean to be rude, but I will be rebutting quite a lot of the claims in the posted snippet.
Disclaimer: I'm an American by birth. Do excuse me for defending Europe from this late-stage-capitalist slander.
In 2000, incomes in the original six members of the European Union were just 10 percent behind Americans. Today, they are 20 percent lower.
Mean? Median? Does it matter at all when looking instead at quality of life? Incomes are only useful in-so-far as they provide you a quality of life; the raw number mostly doesn't matter. The life the income can provide you is what matters.
I'd argue that most Americans, under Trump's idiocy, are generally worse off than most Europeans. Higher incomes don't offset nation-wide insanity.
One factor behind this has been the lack of innovation in European business.
This is a claim that gets repeated frequently, but what the fuck does "innovation" even mean nowadays? Does something like Ozempic count? Or is it only
"tech"ad-tech companies? Chatbot companies? Does "innovation" mean "stock market goes up"? If it does, I grant you that the USA has manipulated the stock market to hell and back, what with reintroducing stock buybacks (which used to be illegal as they are blatant stock price manipulation).Tesla is now worth more than the next nine largest carmakers in the world put together.
Tesla is a meme stock. Pretending that it is a serious economic indicator only serves to identify the author as a joke. Observing Tesla's car business, they are in a total global collapse. Their competitors are mostly doing okay (but are legislatively insulated from BYD, which is blowing everyone out of the water, including Tesla).
Six American cities are now served by robotaxis made by Waymo.
95%+ of European cities are served by good public transit, which does a much better job than Waymo at a much lower per-trip cost. Pretending that cars are a good way to traverse cities is pure nonsense.
Understanding why it doesn’t have a Tesla is existential.
Meme stocks are not existential.
And just seven companies globally – Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Samsung, and Huawei – spend more on research each year than Volkswagen.
No shit? Gas/diesel cars are a solved problem. Volkswagen's primary need for research is the move to electric vehicles (which they are doing), and their limit is their available capital. Cars are not a high margin business; Volkswagen needs to be much more careful, per dollar, than the high-margin ad-tech companies do.
Also, "research spend" is a very nebulous term; bog standard software development is considered R&D by most jurisdictions. So it makes sense that companies that make their money via software development are also the ones who have a big number in the "R&D" box.
Agreed. He played to the right for all of the past couple years. As he is angling for the presidency, and as he'll be a major candidate in the Democratic primaries, is behooves everyone to learn about him before his spin campaign builds momentum.
I was first made aware of his total lack of position from the A Bit Fruity podcast/video, which covers a lot of his recent behavior. Here's a link to that: We All Deserve Better Than Gavin Newsom (with Emma Vigeland and Kat Blaque)