DdCno1 @ DdCno1 @beehaw.org

Posts

39

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963

Joined

2 yr. ago

Got a bit of room left under that rock of yours? It seems cozy.

And Trump will be better for Palestinians how exactly? Anyone who prefers inane grandstanding instead of picking the lesser evil (no matter the topic) is a moron. That's how politics work. The ideal candidate doesn't exist and will never exist. If you ever come across one who 100% mirrors every single one of your opinions, get your head examined.

Edit: Also, every single credible poll out there indicates that American voters - idiotically - picked Trump due to their dissatisfaction with the economy. Middle Eastern wars were not high on the list of priorities for most voters.

Too bad this won't save you from the bastards that call themselves the SVP. Those are among the extremist parties who might feel emboldened/inspired by Trump and Project 2025.

Switzerland removed explosives from critical infrastructure years ago.

The fallout from another Trump presidency will be global. Your dual citizenship might not be enough to keep you safe. Copycat far right governments, wars, pandemics, general instability and uncertainty. Pick your poison.

Just do what I did with KSP and watch some clever people play it. This will provide you with an idea of what's possible, which you can build upon.

Thank you for the detailed answer!

Which aspects are less developed?

Eh, I don't blame the solo developer. Official Linux support would be nice, but it's still only used by 2% of Steam customers, most of which are on the Steam Deck:

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

There is a non-trivial amount of work involved in creating and supporting Linux binaries. Based on what other developers have reported, despite the small number of Linux users, they can be responsible for a disproportionate number of support tickets. I think part of the reason for this is has to be the enormous number of Linux distributions out there. While most users are using a small handful of distros and their derivatives, there's just too much variety within a very small portion of the market (plus the whole issue of poor GPU driver support on top), which can lead to all sorts of unexpected and difficult to replicate compatibility and stability issues.

Not to mention, this game is playable on the Steam Deck. It seems to work just fine on Linux (or at least Arch) through Proton, so why complain?

V Rising. I just started playing and am already hopelessly addicted. Please send help.

For those not familiar, it's a Diablo-esque (with direct controls) open world hack and slasher with light RPG elements, but a comparatively much stronger crafting, building and upgrade component, so much so in fact that there are barely any character upgrades beyond some unlockable spells. The core gameplay loop revolves around finding resources (by killing enemies - ranging from humans and animals to all sorts of supernatural creatures and beings - opening chests and farming resources in the environment), then refining them and thereby unlocking new items and things to build in your castles. The latter can be built pretty early on, but in the beginning, it's little more than a few palisade walls (and no roof) protecting a handful of crafting stations and storage chests.

The no roof thing is relevant, because as the V in the game's title implies, the protagonist is a vampire, which means they can suck blood and assume some of the capabilities of their foes. This also means that they need extra strong sun cream, but since it hasn't been invented yet and the substitute magic potion isn't very effective, longer boss fights (which are plentiful and can happen everywhere) that stretch into the day turn into an interesting game of dashing from shadow to shadow while at the same time dodging enemy attacks in order to not get roasted by the fiery ball in the sky. Before I managed to find the necessary resources and crafting stations required for building stone flooring and walls, which automatically create a roof (must be vampire magic), I had to help myself by using braziers that turn bones (a rather plentiful resource, thankfully, given the enormous kill count you rack up in this title) into a mist that blocks out sunlight over a fairly generous area.

Just like other resource-consuming stations, it keeps running even when the game isn't playing. This has advantages and disadvantages: On one hand, you can just do something else for a couple of hours and return to piles of resources having been crafted, but on the other hand, your castle also consumes another resource in order to even remain standing - although this can be turned off, at least in games you host yourself for singleplayer or co-op. V Rising is very generous in this regard anyway, allowing the player to customize virtually every balancing aspect in excruciating detail.

I'm still not very far in the game, having only just unlocked the ability to turn humans into slaves. Depending on their class (from lowly worker to skilled fighter, at least that's what I've encountered so far) and the quality of their blood, the ability of the servants you create can vary quite widely. Capturing slaves is neatly done: You have to bring their health down to at least 30%, then use a special spell to control them. You cannot cast any other spells as you are doing this. The player then needs to carefully bring the extremely vulnerable human back to their castle and place them in a coffin, which starts the conversion process to a servant. The way back home becomes a tricky obstacle course as you try to avoid any bigger fights in order to keep your almost dead human alive until you reach your destination. It's also advisable to kill all other enemies the human is with first, being careful not to use any area of effect spells that might inadvertently kill that rogue with 96% blood purity you so desperately want as your loyal servant.

If there's one thing about this game that is below average, it's the presentation. The intro is the usual cheap motion graphics with voiceover style doing the absolute bare minimum to establish the scenario (vampires once ruled the world, humans fought them, won, you slept for centuries waiting to take over again - that's it), sound effects and music as generic as the fantasy scenario, voice lines repeat themselves all the time, objects are low-poly and textures muddy even from the far away default camera perspective. It's serviceable, but clearly extremely outdated. Nobody would have been impressed by this even 12+ years ago. Effects like magic and explosions are solid though, the day night cycle is well done, the forest is dense and environments have a large number of destructible objects, so at least there's that.

Overall, I'm impressed. V Rising is addictive, challenging and motivating, with tight controls, frantic combat and excellent crafting. This is a clever, well-made game with what appears to be plenty of staying power, exposing new systems and mechanics to the player at a nice, even pace.

Haven't watched it yet, but I suspect it comes down to punching up vs. punching down, correct?

You should only be using those substitutes while you're still getting used to a vegan diet. Treat them like training wheels on a bicycle that need to be taken off and replaced with a proper balance(d diet) once you're feeling secure.

There is nobody in the world that would be able to contain it. Nobody is even close to having the conventional power projection capabilities required for this. Even if "only" democracy ends in America and a dictatorship takes its place, the rest of the world is going to suffer horribly. In the short run alone, all sorts of autocratic regimes (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, plus a couple others in South America and Africa) that were primarily or entirely limited by America's global military presence keeping a lid on them would immediately cease the opportunity to turn entire regions of this planet into warzones. That alone is horrific.

A complete breakup of America on the other hand (which could happen if a dictatorship failed to establish itself) could be a potential doomsday event, I agree with you. The economic shocks caused by this alone would send the world into chaos and that's not even taking the danger of nuclear war (civil and global) into account.

Even if we get an isolationist Trump administration controlled by the Kremlin, this would also be catastrophic, for numerous reasons, from weakening NATO to stalling and reverting desperately needed action on climate change. Hell, imagine another global pandemic, once again without anyone at the helm. Love or hate the US, it was clear that the lack of American leadership during COVID-19 was the primary factor responsible for the poor global response to it.

Are you using your Deck only as a portable system or also with a monitor or TV? I've done this a few times, but not very often, mostly because I rarely see the need (but I have a PC as well, so my situation isn't the same).

The effort to break up [NOAA] is part of a strategy of hear no evil, see no evil: If you don’t report on climate change, then perhaps it doesn’t exist.

The same thing was done by Conservatives in the Spanish provinces that have just been ravaged by flooding. They dismantled government agencies responsible for monitoring the effects of climate change and provide aid to affected communities, which made it impossible to prepare and warn citizens, resulting in hundreds of deaths and enormous amount of destruction.

Less racist and more culinarily sheltered, I would presume.

Not just fully grown women, unfortunately.

My worry is that after a few days of playing around with it, it becomes a $200 paperweight. It's a bit (and by that I mean at least 2x) too expensive for what it is.

A majority appears to be:

62.7% of the Fortnite players are from the age group of 18 to 24.

https://www.demandsage.com/fortnite-statistics/

It's not just a kids game, has been around for long enough (seven years) and has enough staying power that even many of those who started playing it as kids are now adults. Personally, I never cared about it, but that's because I stopped playing multiplayer shooters a long time ago, not because I feel like I'm too old for this.

These are talented developers, but the things Paradox management have said and done (in general and in regards to this game) are hardly confidence-inspiring. They've already said that there won't be a part three (at least not with their help), at least heavily implied that they have no confidence in this game's success and stated that people should tamper their expectations.