Posts made by Arkandel

@adrick What are the capabilities or limitations of your web server? Does it replicate telnet over http(s) or can it do more than that?

@theonceler said in Good or New Movies Review:

Have you been concerned that Aquaman might be bad?

Well, put your worries to rest!

It's fucking terrible!

How come?

I haven't seen it yet, but many of the reviews I've been seeing are pretty positive, and they've already cleared a sequel.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/aquaman-reviews-james-wan-superhero-195704433.html

What was wrong with it?

@groth said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

@sparks said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:
In terms of actionable suggestions and focused discussion on those suggestions, the Github ticket is always going to be the winner by far since it breaks the discussion into specific topics that can be sorted/labeled/assigned etc.

+1.

Forums like MSB are great for general brainstorming but they fall apart if you need to create sub-topics on the fly and organize feedback. They are simply not meant for organizing technical information since a lot gets lost in the noise, especially for late comers.

But the scope of what a thread is meant to achieve is still debatable, and obviously for those of us who simple enjoy debating systems and mechanics there's value in it whether it's deemed usable or not. It's not like the rest of every other thread is packed solid with high quality content not comprised entirely of cat memes.

@tempest said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

@arkandel said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

@tempest Even though having XP caps is certainly one way to address specialization, it bears pointing out it's not the only way, and that it has side effects - such as disincentivizing established players from earning more XP by participating in the game's systems that reward it.

I've yet to see any other way of addressing it actually accomplish anything.

If there is infinite XP, eventually people have all the things. Even if they are paying 5x the XP cost of other people for those things.

Whether any other way of addressing the issue is 'as good' or not is debateable and I'm not going to pursue that argument in a thread about a game I don't play msyelf. Its players know better about that part.

What I'm saying though is that if an argument is made that a certain system is the best to address a problem then part of that argument must be to point out its side-effects, if only to ensure the solution doesn't create more problems than it's solving. I'm deeply suspicious of easy solutions ("do <X> and the problem is solved!"), since it's usually because they skip that step.

@tempest Even though having XP caps is certainly one way to address specialization, it bears pointing out it's not the only way, and that it has side effects - such as disincentivizing established players from earning more XP by participating in the game's systems that reward it.

@thenomain said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

I don't think your question relates to what Groth said.

I think it's relevant to one of the points of what he said (or, at least, how I interpreted them). Yes, I agree for example if there's a best way to create a certain type of character, yet the game doesn't instruct you in how to do so, or at least point out the tradeoffs if you choose to build them a different way, that's an issue.

However:

@groth said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

You'll never be able to create a system where knowledge and optimization are not things. However you can create a system where a player just making their sheet according to what they feel their character should be like will be succesful and not be subjected to pressures about doing things 'wrong'.

Of course not, unless characters are virtually identical to each other in the end. However my question wasn't so much about whether it's possible to do so or not, but rather what the upside of it was.

For example there are players who enjoy crafting a character's sheet, spending carefully to create a specific build to back their RP up. I'm one of them. And yet even professionally created and highly curated systems (MMOs come to mind) have historically failed to achieve the dual state of balance and *absence of homogeneity. That's a really, really tough goal to achieve.

What's the upside in trying in the context of a game like Arx? It's not a rhetorical question, I think it's a valid one.

@groth said in Constructive (keyword) Criticism of Arx Systems:

If you don't want people to feel pressured to optimize characters this or that way, why are the game systems built to give such massive advantages to specialized characters? Almost all Arx systems involve high base difficulties combined with massive multipliers.

Why not?

What's the upside of creating systems specifically so knowledge of how they work or optimization can't give an advantage?

Jesus.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/nba-dancers-reveal-decades-long-culture-brainwashing-eating-disorders-unfair-pay-224511899.html

I think what works against Shyamalan these days is his reputation more than anything. It used to work greatly in his favor ('that guy really knows how to do movie twists!') but after a couple of his movies bombed - and come on, The Happening was terrible - there was just too much... negative stuff out on the interwebs about his films.

"How is this guy still getting movies made?" was pretty common before he scored big again with Split.

@pyrephox I'm the same way. If a game makes me want to optimize and run a spreadsheet of my future XP spends then it's got me.

BURN THE WITCH @jibberthehut

After two months of having my finger immobilized 24/7 I got to take the splint off at the surgeon's office and it's now healed. The next step is rehab, which will last another month.

I've been worried about how it was doing since there's no feedback - there was never any pain or disconfort, it's just that the top knuckly just... wouldn't stay straight with a torn extendor tendon, it'd just droop, and I was only taking the splint off for a minute at a time, manually supporting it with my other fingers once a day to keep the skin clean. I've been of course cheating like crazy by double-splinting it to play basketball but hey.

The funny thing is bending it even at the perfectly healthy joint is pretty hard now since neither joint has been used in weeks. I just want that damn finger back so I can type - I type for a living, more or less, and it turns out your middle finger is pretty handy (haaaah hah) for that.

@aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

If it would make the retail workers feel better, I will tell my very funniest retail story ever, which involves end-of-night inventory at a friend's place of employment. I will warn, however, that said friend was working at a fetish shop at the time, so.... it's super, super NSFW.

Y/N?

What's the goddamn chance we'll say (N)?

Come on. This is us.

Can someone snap @coin to oblivion?

@coin You are dead inside.

Ronin-eye is here!

Ant-man is out of the quantum realm!

And the best line I read in Reddit:

"RIP Cap's beard!"
"Why, did the snap kill Shanon?"

The Avengers: Endgame trailer is out.

Hyped as fuck.

I won't even pretend to use spoiler tags for a trailer but we need to talk about this, you guys.

@surreality said in Random links:

@arkandel While I am not even a little bit surprised by the findings there -- which are along the predictable 'money doesn't buy happiness' line -- I will say this: there sure isn't a dearth of miseries it can't make fuck all, partly, or at least some measure of the way off.

I think it speaks more to human nature. Insanely wealthy people are still people and they need to feel good about themselves. They are insulated from many of our (?) common everyday triumphs - a vacation now and then means nothing to them, a new car is a mere banality, being given a present at Christmas, having someone do their chores for a few days... basically anything materialistic, any improvements to their lifestyle, they are all useless.

All they have is the spirit of good ol' tribal competition. That one goes all the way from wanting to win the game of MUSHes to win the game of bank accounts.

I liked where the article pointed out people who become wealthy move to a different neighborhood where people are as or richer than they are, so the cycle begins anew. That was interesting.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/rich-people-happy-money/577231/

@bobotron said in Is there a game about...:

@arkandel

I would love to have a single venue vampire game that was actually active. Having tried to build it, and got no help, it feels like a pipe dream.

I think it's more than doable, that it would be a blast.

The issue is many of the attempts lacked critical elements - either they were pure sandboxes (that never works out at least in terms of popularity), lacked distinguishing features (stock code taking none of the splat's specifics in mind) or little to none word of mouth.

@tinuviel It probably surprised the plumber who had to come fix it.

Unless this is the kind of TS scenario such a handyman was present at the time.