Best posts made by Ganymede

@bobotron

Look, I get what you're saying. I do.

Shooting arrows at robots? That's cool.

Shooting arrows at robot deer and steer? That's also cool.

Shooting arrows that hog-tie robot panthers to the ground? That's nifty cool.

Shooting flaming arrows at giant robot saber-toothed cats? That's really cool.

Shooting exploding sonic arrows at giant robot coelecanth-like monsters that burrow through the ground, leap out at you, and occasionally belch out streams of rock at you while you're riding on the back of a robot water buffalo in a suit of force-field armor?

That's priceless.

@Derp said in RL Anger:

We considered that, but since the dude is basically broke it would be a hollow victory.

Unless he's insured. If he's got homeowner's insurance (I don't know) or has parents that do (and he's still covered under it), the insurer may be on the hook if you claim that the death was the result of negligence -- namely that your brother wasn't the intended target.

Always worth a shot. Might want to check with a lawyer.

@Taika said in How much plot do people want?:

Apologies. By 'big plot', I meant more 'metaplot' - a big story, over a longer spam of time, that needs smaller plots to get resolutions, that eventually build in a big reveal or a large group effort to bring down/fix, etc. This would be something like... finding out why the Thor Shot went off.

On consideration, why does it matter how the world ended? Will this discovery have any impact on the game?

Honestly, having played on The Descent before, I don't think a metaplot matters. The Descent had the feel of a survival game, and those games eschew grand answers for important goals. For my PC, claiming and holding his territory was his story, and he had absolutely no ambition to figure out how or why the barriers ripped open.

Little plot is a handful of scenes to build up towards (hopefully) a player driven goal. Like restoring power to a chunk of the grid. This could take some salvaging, bartering, running errands for trade in parts, etc, until the goal is accomplished.

This, I think, is the scope you want for plots run by staff. Rather than have it a "player-driven goal," however, it could simply be a problem to solve. Announce the "situation," and then let players try -- or not try -- to fix it. If the situation isn't fixed, make sure there are consequences.

@kanye-qwest said in General Video Game Thread:

honestly I had a whiff of interest in Kingdom Come Deliverance but a bit of watching gameplay vids and reading the game media left me with the distinct impression this is some completely myopic bullshit where Good White Man's Son galavants around have grand Adventures and choosing which whores to be bathed by.

It's a lot better than not being able to choose the whores to be bathed by.

@Misadventure said in RL Anger:

I realize that in the flow of conversation one post may seem to be speaking to same person as a prior one, but there is no @!Sunny, if there was I would certainly make use.

It's when you get this obtuse that you become unpleasant to converse with.

@Chet said in Swashbuckling and continued success:

I find for an epic feel, you need a system where you roll a basic unit number for every roll (I prefer 1d5), and you roll an extra die for each max roll (5), no matter how many 5s you get. This way, you never fail, but you can have increasingly epic successes. The matter is applying it.

This is the "Exploding Dice" mechanic, which I agree demonstrates epicness.

Which is why Earthdawn is a hellafun game.

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

The problem with the game industry is that it's an industry, that any businessman worth their salt is going to look for a way to maximize return on investment.

Any businessman worth their salt looks for a way to ensure that their business will stand the test of time, even if that means not taking the maximum return on investment.

@Ghost said in Random Bitching:

Terrible? No. I think he's altogether a better hockey player than Crosby, but Crosby doesn't have a problem with playoff slump and has led the Pens to cups. Was Ovie worth the $124m? His regulation stats are great and he's put butts in the seat, though his regulation stats are on a downward trend, as well.

Justin Williams gets paid extra money because he performs well in the playoffs. Why shouldn't Ovechkin get mo' money if he can play well in the regular season? If you don't play well in the regular season, no one gives a shit about your playoff abilities.

Ovechkin averages well over a point per game in the regular season (1,035 pts., 921 GMs). He has won countless awards. In the playoffs, his stats are different, but are still damned good (90 pts., 97 GMs). Backstrom is in the same general boat: about a point per game in the regular season, but only a slight drop in the playoffs.

Last season, Braden Holtby couldn't save them. The year before, yes, the scoring was suspect. But in previous years, the defense was permitting too many shots (over 400 in 2 series is awful).

Frankly, the Capitals simply aren't good enough. That's it. Crosby and Malkin look like the saviors, but it's really about Murray, Sheary, Rust, and all of the other lesser-known players that made the Penguins champs again (I mean, do you know Nick Bonino is?). Who does anyone know on the Capitals beyond Ovechkin and Backstrom?

In the end, I'm just a Coyotes fan who has been pulling their hair out at the decisions the GM/franchise are making, a lot of bad politics and drama, so I've adopted the Flyers as my Eastern conference team.

I can get behind this just fine. It's okay to love two teams in two different conferences. But the Flyers suck, they've always sucked, and they will continue to suck until their front office realizes: (1) their defense is terrible now; (2) their goaltenders blow; and (3) beyond Giroux's line, you can field a team of girl scouts with better success.

You know, the team I can watch while my Coyotes trade useful players like Dubnyk away.

Dubnyk was a back-up on Edmonton, and was a back-up to Mike Smith when he was with AZ, putting up a 9-5-2 record. That's not bad, but he posted an awful 2.72 GAA and pedestrian .916 save percentage.

Then he was traded to the Wild for a third-round pick, and became a star there. He is making $4.33M a season now, but still has a GAA around 2.30.

Meanwhile, AZ turned that pick into Brendan Warren, who ended up being traded with a fifth round 2018 draft pick to the Flyers for Nick Cousins and Merrick Madsen. As you should know, Cousins was one of the Flyers' centers last year, who put up 16 points in 60 games; not bad for a 24-year old. Madsen, meanwhile, put up a GAA of 2.11 and save percentage of .923 in 36 games with Harvard last year, and is only 22.

So, your mileage may vary. AZ has been in re-build mode for a couple of years. Now, they look like a threat for the playoffs, but the Western Conference is deep and painful.

@Apos said in Swashbuckling and continued success:

I think anything that's very episodic in feel has some issues translating to MUs, since it takes a lot of work to make an environment that can sustain itself between episodes that highlight the kind of high adventure vibe you want to capture.

BSG:U has a good way of doing this by moving the Dauntless (the ship from which the PC crew is based) from system to system. Faraday then posts a "setting post" to remind everyone of the crew's objectives at the system, and the general feel of being there.

@aerianyx said in General Video Game Thread:

I think if you take ME3 as a whole as the goodbye to that series, it is freaking beautiful.

I agree with you, but that's not why I liked it so and not what I'm getting at.

(And, obviously, I romanced Liara all the way through the series.)

We can cut apart and dissect every portion of the story and game, but I prefer to just enjoy the experience. If I don't enjoy something, I honestly don't spend much time considering why or why not; so, I don't do the same if I enjoy it.

I liked when Samara is reunited with the daughters she left. I liked that Jacob had a chance to be the father he never had. I liked Thane's redemption.

I just liked it.

But I also like Merrill, and I liked Varric, and I liked the entire disconnected story of oppression that was Dragon Age 2, as much as I loved the dystopian terror of The Last of Us.

@Ghost said in The Hockey Thread:

It's just a mess and I hope Domi and their new squad can get some decent work done, * * *.

Uh. There's more than Domi. I mean, I like Max Domi as much as I liked Tie Domi (aka Me Idiot), but the Yotes are a lot better than that.

They have Ekman-Larsson, Goligoski, Hjalmarsson, Demers, Chychrun, and Schenn, not to mention Clendening and Connauton to fall back on. That's a pretty solid D-group.

You've got Strome, Domi, Cousins (now), and Derek Stepan down the center. Martinook, Dvorak, and Duclair are solid LWs, and Etem is a solid, young RW. And Antti Raatta looked good backing up King Henrik.

Don't give up hope on them.

I mean, they aren't the Flyers.

@Thenomain said in Swashbuckling and continued success:

If I create a major game system again, it will be a scene system, where a scene set is the room description, and when the scene moves locations the new setting information is posted for everyone there. This is halfway done for people who run big scenes already. A scene system would do much more, but the times I’ve used this before it got very good reception.

Might want to talk to @faraday about this. She's already built something like this, and it also uploads the scene to her game's wiki with a command. And, yes, the upload omits OOC stuff, pages, and whatever, keeping the rolls and the poses and emits.

@tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

Assassin's Creed Odyssey any good? Looks fun, but from what I recall of the old AC's, the gameplay is very...same-y.

I have absolutely no frame of reference because, for me, it is the first AC game I've ever played.

There's a lot to do. There's a lot of little skills and tricks that I had to learn and get used to. The melee combat is much less forgiving than The Witcher III, and not as simple as The Last of Us. But I don't think it's as punishing as any of the Dark Souls game, and I like the combat a great deal more than Dragon's Dogma.

There's a lot to do. You can customize and upgrade a lot of things, I feel. You can customize your armor, your weapons, and your ship. It's sort of frustrating that I have to continually upgrade my weaponry, which can get really fucking expensive over time. I feel that this kind of forces you to take on the stupid-ass side quests that have no bearing on the game itself. Thankfully, the game is so gorgeous that running around the countryside is, in itself, a joy, like in Horizon Zero Dawn.

I'm not sure what your frame of reference is, but I find the game enjoyable. I am not as into it as I was Persona 5, but that's not a bad thing. Persona 5 kind of sucks you into that whole "one more dawn, one more day" progression so you can choose activities and boost your character stats. AC: Odyssey is more relaxed and probably won't cause you to stay up too late; once you're done a mission, you can go and do something else comfortably.

I would probably say that I do not regret picking AC: Odyssey over Valkyria Chronicles 4. I will probably end up finishing it.

But, shit, I am getting a little salty about some of the silliness, like knife-fighting sharks.

@Sunny said in RL things I love:

I have to eat my Pho before I can play with my laptop.

Edited to add: omg it is so tasty.

Pho is one of my favorite things now. There's a place near where I live called 'Wat Da Pho'. I go there twice a week.

@ghost

For you when your friends complain about kayfabing.

https://vimeo.com/39114507

@tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

What is this in-game purchase helix currency for in Odyssey? (It's currently downloading.)

For me, it doesn't matter. I don't buy that shit. As far as I'm concerned, it's weaksauce boosting for weaksauce players.

Play the motherfucking game, I figure, and fuck that impatient-ass bullshit.

@n0q

Maybe try Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear?

https://www.dp9.com/heavygear

@the-tree-of-woe said in FCs on Comic MUs:

So, flip the playbook. Check for intent first and foremost and treat knowledge as the secondary concern, and encourage players to learn more about their FC as they play if there are gaps in their knowledge.

See, why bother?

Superman isn't hard to understand as a character trope. Why do I need to know much about him beyond his general capabilities and vulnerabilities? Maybe that's why I'm just no good on these games.

It's also why I like OCs: they have no history. I don't need to memorize or be compelled to study generations of comics in order to be given a pass by raving, rabid comic fans. I can just play a PC with a power-set.

@thenomain

I'll see you next year.

@Arkandel said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

The mismatch between good, informative, positive material between workout content created for men and women is outstanding. It was really unsettling when I realised the disparity recently.

I don't mean to sound condescending, but welcome to the wonderful world of gender inequity in North America.

Imagine if you're a young man who is learning too. Who are you going to follow? The slender, whip-like trainer, or the muscle-man? What's your ideal image? Will you be able to get to it?

Imagine if you're a young woman who is learning. The message is clearer: don't be big and strong; be slender and toned. And then walk into restaurants, where everything is PROTEIN and ERMAHGERD SUPERFOOD PROTEIN and EAT MEAT PUSSY ERMAHGERD PROTEIN.

It kind of sucks.