Best posts made by Thenomain

My problem with building a character around a played-by is that I think of the person whose image I'm borrowing and I think, "Am I doing this person credit with this concept? Is this the kind of thing they would play or pretend, as professionals?" And then I stop thinking about my character and start thinking about their character.

That said, it's good to see people posting some images of people who wouldn't otherwise be models. I just can't play pretty-pretty princess or princesses, except sarcastically.

I am:

1. drinking cider.
2. playing The Outer Worlds.

Let me describe where I am right now in The Outer Worlds.

This game is Bioshock + Borderlands as applied with an RPG element from the inventors of Fallout. I don't mean this is literally what it is, but even if some other people made it this is exactly what it feels like.

There is a bit in Mass Effect 2 where you have to make an agonizing moral decision (having to do with free will). There's the part in Bioshock where the big plot-twist hits you alongside the head. The Outer Worlds is doing this in its introductory scenario.

I stopped on purpose because that's how hard the decision is for me. I'm playing the typical goodie-two-shoes and yeah, no, you can't.

You. Can't.

Play this game over a month for one dollar.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/pc-games

Or buy it outright from Microsoft.

Why are you still reading this? Go!

@auspice said in System dealbreakers:

YOU TOO COULD BE A WASTE MANAGEMENT PRINCESS.

I have my next WoD concept.

@Testament said in General Video Game Thread:

@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

There isn't enough Fallout for me in Outer Worlds.

Kind of surprised that's a sticking point for some. After the dumpster fires that Fallout 4 is and the catalyst that is the worst PR nightmare for Bethesda that Fallout 76 still continues to be, and you're saying that it's not Fallout enough?

Who says that I think Fallout 4 is Fallout enough? And Fallout Shelter is more Fallout than 76. Fallout 3 and New Vegas revived a world with certain beats. These beats are shared by the original Fallouts. Some are new. These are what makes a Fallout... Fallout.

But Outer Worlds is also not Borderlands enough. It’s not Bioshock enough. It’s not Firefly enough. It’s also, and I want to be deeply constructively critical here, not Outer Worlds enough.

It touches a lot of themes and situations and does not feel to me like they are finding many beats of their own. Even if they cribbed them from all the similar (in more than look) influences, I would be feeling more in step.

I dunno, but I feel like if it was more Fallout like than it would be criticized to no end for copying Fallout, despite the fact that Obsidian is pretty much made out of a good deal of people who created Fallout at Black Isle.

You mean they would be criticized if they had stronger character arcs? More living world with more situational showing and less terminal telling? A plot that wove through everything no matter what you chose to do?

New Vegas is an example of people who created Fallout who created a whole new version of it. Twice if you count the story in the DLC. Twice! You barely step into a Vault! And they ran out of time for how in depth they wanted to make Caesar’s Legion!

So I don’t know what people think “more like Fallout” would have meant “just like Fallout”, but when I finish I plan on giving this game all the accolades possible. Even with my above complaints, there is so much to recommend about this game.

@derp said in System dealbreakers:

@thenomain said in System dealbreakers:

@auspice said in System dealbreakers:

YOU TOO COULD BE A WASTE MANAGEMENT PRINCESS.

I have my next WoD concept.

I'm afraid you'll have to fight me for it. puts up his dukes

Tell you what. I'll take the concept to Werewolf, you can have Changeling.

@RDC said in General Video Game Thread:

@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

I hate the Outer Worlds but love Borderlands.

I think it should PROBABLY be legal for you to think this, but I can't imagine a just world where it's legal for you to say this out loud.

Ok, Boomer.

@moonman said in The Death Of Telnet: Is It Time To Face The Music?:

@apos said in The Death Of Telnet: Is It Time To Face The Music?:

On the other hand, how many players do you want?

Infinite, ideally.

This is the scale for operating systems, or transportation, or video games as an entire industry. This is the kind of thing I would want out of a project trying to replace telnet, but few people in this thread see that as a goal. This kind of goal means that you want to see a change in how online text-based role-play is accomplished.

Hold on, I have something about this in my files...

Honestly, the only people who are doing what you're saying are @faraday, @Griatch, and @Ashen-Shugar. The rest of us are along for the ride.

It's better than the alternative of the hobby being "niche,"

Niche is something that happens. Muds and Mushes have the potential of having "infinite" hobbyists opening new games, dorking around, and so forth. A better question would be: Why is it niche? c.f. the above three names for some of the more informed answers, but I don't believe that "The Death Of Telnet" is why.

I mean, for instance, you are on a forum formed by and for people who play Muds and Mushes. You may expect a little bit of confusion and squinting and challenging of your thesis.

Almost all active MU*'s today are either World of Darkness or some kind of capeshit, and I'm interested in neither lately.

So make another game. "It's too hard." Then start a 4-chan RP play by post. "I don't want to." Nnnnnghhhhh....

There's a lot in RP to do that hasn't been hashed out yet, and that's in no small part because of how "niche" the hobby is.

I think it's already been fairly well established that:

a) There are options to Muds/Mushes.
b) There are people working on your complaints, and you should absolutely help them out by supporting them with your time, effort, and/or enthusiasm.

More the second than the first.

By a factor of a thousand.

My advice? Do that.

@RightMeow said in Bundle of Holding: Because we need good deals.:

I don't know what Fate is.

Please don't take my RPer card.

Nah.

Might take away your Googler card, tho.

Fate Core SRD

@magee101

I think the tripping point of people who use the phrase "ICA=ICC" is that they very often ignore that "ICC" comes from people with a far broader understanding of the game world than the character. They have understanding of interactions that never ground in the game, but still affect the game.

Nearly every game I've seen lately has an "ICA=ICC" rule, but what they mean by it is explained in the basic behavioral rules file and almost never named anymore.

Unlike "OOC Masq", tho, this particular meme keeps trying to rise from the grave. I haven't found the magic combination of words to keep it dead.

Now obviously there is some grey area here but every game I have ever played on has a policy system that details to you as a player what is acceptable OOC behaviour, and what IC actions are forbidden for what ever reasons.

These are game rules. These are what we should have. No rape scenes even FTB ones? Okay. No prostitution? Fine. Games are games because they have rules. Without rules, we have Cops & Robbers. ("Bang, you're dead."/"No I'm not!")

What is fantastic is a set of rules for what happens when game rules are broken. Even rough ones—expectations—that start painting a picture, just enough to get people on the same page is fine. (I would like one that reads "staff will never ridicule a player on a public channel" myself, but I've lost that argument since 2001. I mean, how do you punish a volunteer short of firing them?)

I don't think IC/OOC responsibility is a set thing. I think there are checks and balances, and that people with OOC responsibility should provide evidence that they will check themselves, from Headstaff down to Chief Dog Catcher.

@Thisnameistaken

Well that's not Valve's fault. While they could say, "No, you must use our platform's DRM or none", they chose not to. They know it doesn't make Microsoft or Apple any hard-core allies, and Steam walks that very happy line between corporation and nerd paradise. They no more want to force you over to Uplay than you do, and by selling Uplay-centric games you're still thinking, "Man, I wish this was Steam." They get a cut, they get your loyalty, they win and I suspect they want you to win too but no enterprise is perfect.

I resolve to learn f'ing Python and/or Ruby and start a project in Evennia and/or Ares, even knowing that nobody will ever see and/or care. It will only broaden my horizons, and I don't need 24/7 validation.

Project list possibilities:

• FATE Core
• Theno's Evennia Muxification. (Yes I know others have done it, but I over-do things.)
• Maybe some variation on an existing RPG that would be more fitting for Mu*s, but not being a game designer I don't have any design goals for that.

Will take other recommendations.

@Auspice said in Cheap or Free Games!:

@Faceless said in Cheap or Free Games!:

@Auspice I'll probably give it a whirl then. I tend to enjoy the games like Civ. Star Wars Rebellion 4 Lyfe.

I'd say it's worth trying while on sale. I liked it, but some of the people I tried to get to play with me didn't enjoy it. They also aren't big on the Civ-type games.

I try Eternal Legend from time to time and I simply do not understand what I'm expected to do. Even on easy, the only reason my nation isn't ground into paste is because the other nations aren't attacking (because I'm on easy). The learning curve is a huge barrier to me, so unless I search online for tutorials I suspect I'm going to continue being stuck.

The one aspect I did understand and did quite well in was the mini-combat grid, but then I used to play Archon.

Started playing "Beyond Good & Evil", and I believe I now know where the beginning of Mass Effect came from. So far, so fun.

@surreality said in The limits of IC/OOC responsibility:

@Thenomain There's the 'the system allows it, so you have to!' argument some people try to make.

Make a macro with the page number for the rule of that RPG that says:

If a rule doesn't make sense/doesn't serve the story/you don't want to use it, don't use it.

May I suggest a command: +nerd <player name>=ruleslawyer

Thenomain's Witcher 3 Review:

Holy fucking shit.

@faraday

I personally agree that if this is all MSSP can do then it should be ditched, but this is a server-level discussion that I should not be part of. I just fear the ol' XKCD "14 Competing Standards" issue. If what MSSP does could be folded into what some JSON report could do, then A+. Flexibility so that in 20 years when people say that Mu*s are dying we can expand it.

@Ganymede

You have a technical community on your nightstand?

As a throw-out line, I remember when players decided to do things all on their own. Give a class full of artists a blank canvas and a goal and stand back.

Sometimes stand far back with a camera to film the drama, but hey.

I want to say that this habit was beaten out of them by staff for various reasons, but it also probably has a lot to do that we don't have the energy we used to. Kudos to those who do, but I get worn down by work on a regular basis and by the time I'm sitting here I don't want to worry about all the little things we worry about on Soapbox. Sometimes I want to sit down and see what comes of the play.

I can be pretty good at self-motivation when I'm not afraid of the consequences.

@SunnyJ said in General Video Game Thread:

You talking shit about Witcher 3 bro? You wanna go?

If you think that I didn't almost cry at the ending of W3, you would be wrong. I also think that Borderlands 2 is the world's perfect single-player MMO.

But if you have to create a system with fast-travel, then you're saying that travel is boring after you reach the destination, which implies some negatives to this design decision.

I also forgot Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur. The world's most boring single-player MMO, but I finished it and I am not ashamed. As boring as it was, the ending was pretty swank.

So you hit up Google and end it with site:musoapbox.net

I agree with Faraday that pushing one thread for all help is messy.

So because of a sale I, er, just now started playing Wolfenstein: New World Order.

It's...it's good. It's very good.