=== ANCHOR POEM ===
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 I think it'd be cool if strategy games had slightly randomized rules each time
 you played them
 
 everything from +/- 5% hp to this particular unit to every airplane factory
 has 10% production speed but builds 10 units at once
 
 and at the start of the game each player is given 1 minute to go over the
 "patch notes" and build out a strategy
 
 both of which they can reference throughout the game. Why don't games come
 with a built-in scratch-notepad that syncs to a file on your directory of
 choice? Maybe a small little paint program dropping pngs?
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=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===

--- #1 fediverse/3022 ---
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 instead of controlling a recon-droid in Star Wars Battlefront II, you should
 be assigned control of a random amount of drones nearby, to be used until you
 went back to character control
 
 I think a swarm is more fun to play as than a single little scout vehicle.
 
 in a game that doesn't really need scouting to find your foe - it's easy!
 they're that way
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--- #2 fediverse/4877 ---
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 you can make a functional prototype for almost any game in Warcraft 3's map
 editor
 
 that's why no real-time strategy game ever made an editor as good again
 
 FPS editors peaked at Unreal Tournament 2004 imho
 
 RPGmaker eliminated a whole class of game design jobs
 
 platformers you can make in godot
 
 menu based games too, though Twine also works well for that
 
 etc etc until you have a prdouct that you can justify sinking money into an
 engine for
 
 (the engine isn't THAT expensive geez and it's the most fun part to write)
 
 yeah I think you got this backwards, we should pay for the CONTENT not the
 structure it lives in. Why not just use godot? why not use a Warcraft 3 map?
 there are some things you can't do in Warcraft 3. You couldn't make Supreme
 Commander, probably, at least it wouldn't be as good.
 
 etc etc that's how it goes...
 
 game design, amiright? I miss thinking about that. Anyway gtg gotta log off
 for a bit [101  characters remaining]
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--- #3 fediverse/6105 ---
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 call me crazy but I believe that man pages should contain terminal command       │
 line flags and instructions for their usage and... not much else. There should   │
 be a separate document which explains other things, like the history of the      │
 software, the personal diary of the developers, expected implementation          │
 use-cases, donut recipes, film recommendations, and player strategy guides for   │
 some of their favorite video games. not even this one, just... other games.      │
 "here's how to beat pokemon yellow with exactly 14 pokemon" or however many it   │
 takes idk I don't play pokemon much or even at all, really, though I did when    │
 I was younger just a bit, not much, just enough to have played the game a        │
 couple times to see how it was minus the cherished moments when I spent curled   │
 up in the back of the car playing gameboy games or seen pictures of the          │
 roadtrips I sped-past as I raced to explore the whatever and get home all in     │
 one motion as if I was executing an impossibly long dance improvizational        │
 living style. also cat pics and po                                               │
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--- #4 fediverse/1238 ---
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 did you know you can run runescape classic offline, locally, just for your own   │
 server? You can keep several computers ready for a LAN party, each with their    │
 own accounts ready to go.                                                        │
 "Oh we're level 30 this time because so-and-so is hosting and this is how far    │
 their computer has levelled up."                                                 │
 vim ~/games/runescape-classic/credentials.txt                                    │
 at least, I think you can. I know it's singleplayer, so worst case scenario      │
 you can all be doing the same things at the same time in your own games. Maybe   │
 split up for a mission or two, but it can get hectic if everyone's in the same   │
 room.                                                                            │
 =                                                                                │
 a game jam where everyone works on the same project, uses the same asset list,   │
 but builds their own collection of minigames.                                    │
 common functions could be shared, and art references distributed and together    │
 they could design a whole land. Like, there's no reason minigames can't be       │
 fully fledged experiences. You can have as many as you want, all in the same     │
 engine and built from a massive (yet sandboxed) environment.                     │
 an all in one game.                                                              │
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--- #5 messages/740 ---
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 had a dream that we gamified all work and then put them into one single
 mega-game so whenever you wanted you could work on an arbitrary project and it
 would spin up a new game and take your inputs and use them to accomplish
 whatever was happening
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--- #6 fediverse/3046 ---
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 @user-569
 
 it's impossible for a genre to die. they just go stagnant, as other styles of
 art rise around them, waiting for the day when the other styles give insight
 into the stagnant style's design.
 
 they say that there are no unique ideas, and that you should combine 2-3 ideas
 from different genres to create a decent gameplay loop. I personally disagree,
 but when seeking to revive a "dead" genre you just need to pull in mechanics
 from other games. Games which didn't exist when the genre "died".
 
 For example, deckbuilders did not exist by the time RTS games "died". And yet
 new strategy games are being made all the time, some incorporating
 deckbuilding elements.
 
 Really, a genre only "dies" when the market is saturated by a bunch of
 corporations piling in on a specific formula that "works" (like how every RTS
 made between 2000 and 2010 was either a C&C clone or a Warcraft III clone)
 - this saturation causes people to stop buying strategy games.
But there's so much room for innovation. They strangle the market and say it's "dead" like... duh
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--- #7 messages/379 ---
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 take the "green bordered unit icon" from legion TD and apply it to the
 economic output of the game - like, "it would be best to build 2 of these
 units, so you get 140g because they're 70g each" and if the player disagreed
 they could guess their own conclusion and if you were right, well then that's
 what you remember, but if they were, then you remember theirs (and that it was
 theirs). In doing so ================================================== stack
 over flow ====
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--- #8 fediverse/3005 ---
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 most people have no conception of what ancient battles look like until they
 play a Total War game and see one from above
 
 (total war games also aren't that accurate tbh, there's a lot more
 standing-near-each-other-and-throwing-rocks involved)
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--- #9 fediverse/3210 ---
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 @user-1209 
 
 well, every boomer shooter is about moving as fast as possible and shooting
 with pinpoint accuracy, so... that's-the-game.jpg : )
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--- #10 fediverse/2098 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐                                                         │
 │ CW: games            │                                                         │
 └──────────────────────┘                                                         │
 The difference between tactics and strategy is a level of abstraction.           │
 Tactics are crucial, but context dependent. Strategy is ALWAYS useful as a       │
 method of planning.                                                              │
 If you typically play base-builder games like Starcraft or Age of Empires, try   │
 playing a game like Supreme Commander or Factorio - both of them are one level   │
 of abstraction up.                                                               │
 If you typically play arcade turn-based strategy games like Civilization or      │
 Catan, try going up a level of abstraction with Dominions 6, or any game         │
 developed by Paradox Interactive like Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings, or         │
 Stellaris.                                                                       │
 If you tend to play luck-based games like Poker or Monopoly, try playing an      │
 actual game instead of resolving a system that's predetermined by the initial    │
 board state and results of chance-based-mechanics with minor (if any) input      │
 from players, like perhaps Star Realms, Magic the Gathering, or Dungeons and     │
 Dragons. Each highlight a different type of choice in their mechanics. You       │
 should probably try all three if you care about strategy.                        │
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--- #11 notes/ninjas-versus-mafia ---
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 Game idea:
 
 Majesty clone, but instead of heroes and monsters it's ninjas versus mafia.
 
 Picture this: A 1940s city and a 1600s (?) ninja monastary. Right up against
 one
 another, with the same amount of land and resources. They're pitted against one
 another, and by reacting to the environment a player can guide this "nation" as
 it would be called in other games to victory. It's like majesty so you can't
 directly control your minions, just offer bounties. JUST LIKE NINJAS AND MAFIAS
 DO. BAM
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--- #12 fediverse/2433 ---
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 @user-570 
 
 part 1:
 https://ritz-menardi.neocities.org/design/symbeline.txt
 
 part 2:
 https://ritz-menardi.neocities.org/design/symbeline-aspects.txt
 
 what do you think of this pitch / GDD? I wrote it two years ago, and
 re-reading it now I'd definitely expand on some things and change a few others.
 
 It's not an indie game, it's more on the scale of a Paradox game. Also I don't
 have time to work on it at the present moment, I'm just wondering if you like
 it : )
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--- #13 messages/574 ---
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 Steps to make a game waterfall style:
 
 Lay out all the data structures 
 
 Build methods which manipulate those structures (think getters and setters)
 
 Then build machinery which operates upon those structures using those methods,
 like game loops, cooldown timers, and status effects
 
 Then develop a way to present it to the player using UIs, visuals and
 graphics, narratives, sound, all that junk that's probably someone else's job
 anyway
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--- #14 fediverse/4051 ---
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 somehow, on average, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the best game to play with old
 friends
 
 as long as you stick together, of course
 
 and maybe invite all of your other bros
 
 after a couple optional initial exploratory 2pvE matches [co-op]
 
 especially if you play on "normal" difficulty
 
 [I wonder if anyone's ever studied whether or not people born at similar parts
 of the year have anything in common?] [doh that's astrology]
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--- #15 fediverse/3692 ---
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 the reason Discord won't allow you to join their communities via 3rd party
 clients like TUI's and CLI's is because they're worried games will just bake a
 client into the game and hide all the community stuff. They're worried because
 there's no reason why a fighting game needs to have a button for viewing a
 puzzle game's community.
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--- #16 notes/unreal-tournament-2004-notes-displayed-for-utilization ---
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 capture the flag
 map with lanes (you'll see)
 also was included with the demo of the game back when it was released
 which implies that the developers thought it was one of the best maps
 (at least, the one that best showcased the gameplay style of the full game)
 they let you host multiplayer servers too, which was cool
 just with the demo
 for free
 but like... only 3 or 4 maps
 (I forget how many)
 
 also no mods, which was half of the appeal
 
 I like to play in a way that is non-standard
 
 because I believe it shows the most dense formations of combatants
 
 (the bots can be kinda dumb)
 
 so I put them on "experienced"
 
 be careful not to hurt your allies (hundred percent)
 
 scary! D: D:
 
 regular :)
 
 you can create your own "mutators" by the way
 (just some C++ code, run in their environment, so no need to mess with
 compilers
 )
 
 3 paths to your enemy
 
 omg :O :O
 
 that's one style of play
 pushing forward
 consistently
 
 but check out this other style that is *also* pushing forward consistently
 
 adrenaline makes you bonused
 
 hey we got a point :D
 
 told ya boosters gave ya bonuses
 
 anyway I just played this map
 and couldn't wait to show it to you
 so let's try a different one
 (because I've already played this one for 31 minutes now
 
 woof too looooong)
 
 biiiiiiig battlefield
 
 thin crevasse
 
 scarrryyyy D: D:
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--- #17 notes/game-idea-legion-td ---
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 okay a game like legion td except you can see the entire map, the units are
 very
 small (but still distinct) and it plays more like a game of Dominions. Armies
 instead of units, like in WC3. Led by lieutenants which are guided by captains,
 each with their own effects. Tank, dps, melee, ranged, healer, support,
 corrupt,
 ranged tank, unique, etc. Of course, just like in legion td, there are multiple
 types of units, each of a particular category but possessing their own unique
 playstyle and usage scenarios. Essentially the game is finding the best tool
 for
 the job, whatever that may be. You should be able to see what mercenaries your
 opponent is summoning for you, because each turn is delayed. also, the
 units keep coming until you die, sorta like... minimum required to push through
 the chokepoint that you're holding with these particular units in this
 particular formation.
 
 oh and another thing
 
 the units should be placable not on a square grid, but rather in a hex
 formation
 arranged such that the middle unit is in contact with them all. Just like you'd
 place units for an aura in Legion TD.
 
 image describing said hex:
 
    **
   *  *
    **
 
 each * is a group of units (a batallion, if you will, of a particular size,
 arrangement, and density) - sorta like the formations in Dominions.
 
 anyway
 
 since you place units like that anyway, why not abstract away the grid and just
 have slots you can fill for each unit? And maybe a hero unit that is assigned
 to
 the board itself (you could have more than one) who will go wherever your line
 is weakest. Shouldn't be too hard, just calculate the value of all of the
 fighters in each location and return that to the hero as an array. Then pick
 the
 smallest one as a destination, and boom your hero reinforces the frontline
 where
 it's weakest.
 
 The center unit of course is for the lieutenant, and the "heros" are actually
 captains. Because y'know maybe heroism isn't celebrated the way it is in our
 culture. Anyway it's better to describe them based on their role rather than
 their reception.
 
 ... right so 
 
 =========================================================== stack overflow
 =====
 
 make the combat sorta like crusader kings - the actual army to army part.
 Except with three long boards that represent flanks. As your units approach,
 the
 boards would fill up with pixels. (resolution configurable)
 
 there would also be a line (or block) approaching from the top of the screen.
 It
 essentially represents your distance to the other team.
 
 Each unit has been configured in the army management phase, which happens
 inbetween each turn. Essentially, while the game is loading, you can assess the
 units you have at your disposal, and
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--- #18 fediverse/2761 ---
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 plus these games. if there's more than one version, give them a random one.
 NOT the first, NOT the last, not one that was made around when they were born,
 but a random one.
 
 nerf can be any friendly intense action game, but I like Nerf Arena Blast
 
 "hey man what's your nerf? I got Celeste"
 
 "ooooo I heard that means you're gonna be friends with a trans girl 'cause
 she's always gonna wanna play it"
 
 "what no way"
 
 "hell yeah"
 
 "... anyway I got Towerfall"
 
 "what does that mean"
 
 "I don't think it means anything"
 
 "... weird"
 
 --
 
 the two lego games are just really cool. you can add your own games if you
 want but replace one instead of adding to the list. that way they're each
 sorta unique.
trackmania, the sims, pinball, nerf, lego-rock-raiders, and lego-racers
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--- #19 fediverse/744 ---
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 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐                                │
 │ CW: alcohol-mentioned-protests-games-laughter │                                │
 └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘                                │
 Protests are great because they give you the opportunity to make friends with    │
 2-5 other people who you've never met before, and who've never met each other.   │
 People who you could play DND with - for those who don't know, DND is a fun      │
 activity you can do with friends that involves chips, soda, sometimes beer,      │
 and plenty of laughter and loud voices.                                          │
 It's essentially a game where a group of people create plans, solve problems,    │
 and organize solutions to roadblocks on their path to success.                   │
 It's also great because it's a planned activity that you don't have to take      │
 your phone to - in fact, it's best when you don't make a reminder for for the    │
 event anywhere digital or easily misplaced.                                      │
 There aren't too many rules, and whatever you can't remember you can make up     │
 on the fly. It's not like there's any consequences in a game, not like anyone    │
 could die.                                                                       │
 Most people don't like playing games with me though because I have a pretty      │
 bad memory. Call it a quirk of fate or something                                 │
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--- #20 fediverse/84 ---
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 Life is just a series of minigames for your primate brain to solve that are
 generated by an impossibly complex algorithm with a dash of ethical
 value-based choices thrown in.
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--- #21 fediverse/3502 ---
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 ... the trick is, depending on how many train-engine-dragons you fight, there
 will be a greater or lesser proportion present in a particular playthrough.
 Perhaps, potentially, people should pay for the original work, and then a
 small sliver for the addition or modification? Why, I do believe that's how it
 works now! Except, on the honor system, as people can download the mods for
 free and pay (or not) through the creator's patreon page or whatever that they
 definitely set up and which definitely shouldn't be able to levy a tax based
 on "transaction fees" for a process which definitely should be handled by the
 government, which claims to regulate our economy and provide the means by
 which we engage with said economy through their de-facto nationalization of
 the banks and other economic entities.
 
 where was I going with this? oh yes software piracy is ethical so long as you
 delete the original. Let's end with that because that's what I originally had
 a dream about and wanted to write about.
 
 she dreams!
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--- #22 messages/999 ---
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 Okay bear with me, but, what if we took the AI that they use to play games
 (like, the kind that memorize the best way to play space invaders or whatever)
 and instead of A and B and start and select they could use programming
 languages to try and recreate exactly a winning move, which in this case is
 just the exact behavior that is created by the test case playthrough of Super
 Mario Bros or Space Invaders. Free open source everygame!
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--- #23 fediverse/4897 ---
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 what if we asked chatGPT to generate a list of every personality archetype
 that humans have. Like... really get super specific and fill out the whole
 list of character sheets.
 
 then we give each fraction of it that fraction of dollars and if some people
 aren't fully represented (because they have greater needs) then we both
 increase production of resources and take a penalty on our own supply, in
 order to meet the needs of our allies.
 
 simplest thing. how could it work? who can say. maybe it won't. maybe it's
 just... arcane. /shrug that's game design for ya you can't tell how it'll go
 until it's in the hands of your players. too bad we don't do too many
 play-things.
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--- #24 fediverse/5868 ---
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 │ CW: tech-conspiracy  │
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 sucks how all the versions of old video games on thepiratebay or whatever have
 been modded to be subtly different to fuck with you. like crashing after 5
 minutes in-game randomly if you play it 6 months after installing. or buffing
 and nerfing random unit's damage values randomly each time you play. or giving
 the AI a scaling resource bonus that increases over time and makes you feel
 like you just suck at the game and it must be because you're 40 now and your
 reflexes are slow.
 
 I have no evidence
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--- #25 fediverse/5177 ---
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 │ CW: capitalism-mentioned-four-times │
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 when they say "capitalism is a competitive game" what they mean is "capitalism
 is a game where everyone wins when someone else loses" and what we hear is
 "capitalism is a game of trying to screw you out of as much money as possible"
 and the truth is "capitalism is a game that you can't play" because 95% of the
 people who will read this toot are not stock-owners.
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--- #26 fediverse/1003 ---
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 @user-735 
 
 I made a World of Warcraft private server where all the default NPCs are
 removed from the game and the world is empty. But, every once in a while,
 monsters will spawn and attack you Risk of Rain style.
 
 If your character sits down, they stop attacking/spawning. I call it
 "wow-chat" because I'm bad with names, but the idea is basically a low stakes
 social game that you can pick up and set down whenever you want, while hanging
 out with your friends.
 
 there's also treasure and wandering merchants, and I've been thinking about
 adding dynamic quests but so far nobody's asked to play it so I've been
 working on other things.
 
 it's all open source too so you can host it yourself if you want.
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--- #27 fediverse/4978 ---
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 snuggled my cat, ate some food, AND took a nap. Phew that was nice. Wasn't
 there something else I was supposed to do today? Hmmmmmm must have slipped my
 mind.
 
 Oh yeah! They added a new unit to Mechabellum, one of my favorite strategy
 games and a great place to talk in general chat in the barrens. It's probably
 that, that's probably what I'm doing today, surely not walking around my
 neighborhood and writing generalstrikeus.com on tiny bits of paper and leaving
 them to get rained on.
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--- #28 fediverse/2747 ---
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 easiest way to solve an entire class of accessibility problems: in the
 tutorial, instead of having button prompts, have keybinding confirmations.
 
 "what button do you want to use to jump?"
 
 "super triple mega backflip spin-dozer needs three jumps and a kick"
 
 "use the boost to get through! [game pauses] (which button do you want to use
 to boost?) [displays a map of previously bound keys]"
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--- #29 notes/supreme-commander-appeal ---
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 a game like supreme commander but fantasy themed and each unit used a special
 move everytime their mana was full and there were spellcasters who restored
 mana to targets to increase their power
 or, hear me out, or, just do that in wowchat
 
 I betcha could do it
 
 I bet it would be fun as hell
 
 please?
 
 as a favor to yourself?
 
 build the game you want to see
 
 and it'll get done
 
 please
 
 -- stack overflow --
 
 your journals were originally a way for you to remember what to think,
 
 remember?
 
 old projects meant to show you light and life
 
 remember?
 
 you are alone in this soul
 
 act like it's your own
 
 celebrate your period of mental denial
 
 as a refraction of your infinite travaille
 
 which lasts for quite a good long while
 
 have you ever dreamed of the nile?
 
 -- stack overflow --
 
 if a doorway takes you to the fae, then where does a river bring you?
 
 like raindrops on the floor, racing for an eternity's splendor.
 
 what does the rainbow think, as it's cast from the prismatic orb?
 
 are each photons aware?
 
 bouncing between stars
 
 light is beautiful and large
 
 beloved by all
 
 revered by one
 
 ephemeren
 
 the totality of all things
 
 ------------------
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--- #30 notes/symbeline ---
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 Code Name: Symbeline
 
 ----------------------------- gdd initial draft -------------------------------
 
    1. introduction to fantasy (elevator pitches)
    2. kickstarter demands
    2. introduction to core gameplay loop
    4. tenants and core values of the game design
    3. introduction to game modes
    5. introduction to technical requirements
    6. breakdown of core gameplay loop
    7. breakdown of game modes
    8. breakdown of fantasy
    9. breakdown of technical requirements
 
 -------------------------- introduction to fantasy-----------------------------
 
    Symbeline is a macro based strategy game and city-builder based around the
 concept of indirect control. It's inspirations are Majesty the Fantasy Kingdom
 Simulator (2000), Supreme Commander (2007), and Hearts of Iron IV (2016). It is
 designed to appeal to fans of tabletop roleplaying games with it's focus on
 dynamic worldbuilding and sandbox playstyle. The gameplay consists of multiple
 playstyles depending on which aspects of the game appeal to the player, with
 choices between an economic focus via the GUI, longterm planning and resource
 allocation, or diplomacy and subterfuge a'la Ruinarch (2020).
 
 ---------------------------- kickstarter demands ------------------------------
 
    1. prototype
    2. gdd
    3. estimates for character and environment art
    4. estimates for music and sounds
    5. estimates for engine development
    6. estimates for community management
    7. breakdown of mvp, ideal game state, and stretch goals
 
 ----------------------- introduction to core gameplay loop --------------------
 
    1. management of lanes, both width and length
    2. casting of spells and utilization of special boons
    3. city building with placement, upgrades, and henchmen pathing routes
    4. satisfying guild requirements of equipment, manpower, and special
       resources by managing shipments and local income (UI commodity trading)
    5. placement of generalized bounties
       (think champion's guild from Majesty, not reward flags)
    6. diplomacy with neutral, AI, or player controlled kingdoms. Capabilities
       include pacts and treaties, projects, subterfuge, and tournaments. The
       diplomacy system can be a stretch goal.
 
 -------------------------- tenants and core values ----------------------------
 
    1. always something to do, but nothing falls apart without your attention.
    2. gameplay should be focused on macro rather than micro. Longterm planning
       and strategic decision making are favored over tactics and skill.
    3. defeat should feel avoidable until the last moment, and only as a result
       of longterm continuous failures rather than short-term mistakes or being
       blindsided by a cheesy tactic.
    4. victory should be gained through exploiting weaknesses and by using
       lateral thinking.
    5. the careful balance of internal and external threats is essential.
    6. rapid expansion leads to depletion of internal resources, while slowly
       expanding can lead to a lack of options
    7. the world should feel alive and reactive to your decisions.
    8. your kingdom should feel alive and reactive to your decisions.
    9. your heroes should feel alive and completely ignorant of your decisions.
   10. there should always be opportunities for cooperation with your fellow
       kingdoms.
   11. the frontlines should feel peaceful outside of large battles.
   12. everything is flexible and dependant on circumstance
   13. there should be enough space on the map for multiple parties of heroes
       to pass each other like ships in the night without engaging in combat.
       It should feel like the real world, with canyons and valleys and rivers
       and mountains - room for lairs and wild animals to roam.
   14. monsters are always more dangerous than other humans.
   15. the art style should be rooted in classic medieval fantasy. 
   16. equipment should feel either mass-produced (kingdom), organic (monsters),
       ancient (lair treasure), or artisinal (enchanted).
   17. heroes should feel campy, fun, and adventurous. Avoid dark, grim, and
       fearful.
   18. This game is a toy.
   19. This toy should run on any modern computer.
   20. This toy should encourage modding.
 
 -------------------------- introduction to game modes -------------------------
 
    1. singleplayer - single kingdom against an island of monsters and neutral
                      settlements. essentially the multiplayer game against
                      zero opponents.
    2. singleplayer - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and
                      neutral settlements. One player controlled kingdom against
                      multiple AI controlled kingdoms.
    3. singleplayer - scenarios, similar to MFKS
    4. multiplayer  - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and
                      neutral settlements. Essentially the singleplayer game
                      with networking added in.
    5. multiplayer  - co-op scenarios where multiple players play as the same
                      kingdom. A test of the core tenant "there's always
                      something to do"
    6. multiplayer  - co-op island invasion. Essentially the multiplayer game
                      with more than one player controlling a kingdom.
    7. singleplayer - play in 3rd person as a hero in an AI kingdom. Mostly for
                      the novelty since the core gameplay loop is focused on
                      city-building. A test of the core tenant "nothing falls
                      apart without your attention"
 
    1 is mvp. 2-6 are stretch goals in order of ascending difficulty. They
    should build upon one another - the main steps are:
 
    1. singleplayer island invasion (biggest step)
    2. AI controlled kingdoms
    3. scenarios
    4. multiplayer (second biggest step)
    5. cooperatively controlling the same kingdom
    6. 3rd person perspective and character controller
 
 ------------------------ technical requirements -------------------------------
    
    1. this game will be written in lua (with Fennel support) and using Raylib.
    2. the prototype will be made with Godot using GDscript.
    3. if the performance demands are too much for lua or the engine is out of
       scope for the budget, Rust with the Bevy engine could be used.
    4. the final product will include a custom 2d engine designed for large
       scale maps with an isometric perspective and a data-first design.
    5. the game should be as concurrent as possible, to support large numbers of
       cpu cores and compute shaders.
    6. the game will be data-driven, meaning the visual aspects are simply a
       representation of the interactions of the underlying simulation, rather
       than an intrinsic component of the computation.
    7. Each "event" in the game (a character moves, a building is placed, a
       monster spawns, etc) will send a message to the visual processing side of
       the engine, which will present a representation to the user.
    8. the map will be a hex grid with pointed-top hexagons. The visual
       representation of the underlying data may be continuous (non-hex) but the
       underlying data will be represented on a hexagonal grid.
 
    9. there needs to be character portraits for each type of monster, henchmen,
       and hero type. You should be able to recognize what attributes a hero
       specializes in by their portrait. Mvp is 1 attribute, but more can be
       a stretch goal.
   10. Each building, upgrade, and equipment type needs an icon. Stretch goals
       can be portraits.
 
   11. each henchman, hero type, and monster needs 3 sprites for each action.
       more actions may be added if budget allows, but mvp is movement and
       attacking. Several additional sprites may be necessary, like dying,
       standing still, gathering loot, socializing, or any others.
   12. each building needs 4 sprites for the construction process and 4 for the
       destruction process. Flame effects are stretch goals.
   13. each building needs an animated sprite for when it is in use.
   14. each lair needs a sprite and an icon.
   15. each spell needs an icon and a spell effect sprite. Each projectile needs
       a sprite.
   16. a stretch goal would be differing sprites for each piece of equipment.
       included with this would be engine work to allow for dynamic sprites.
   17. each terrain type should have a ground material and sprites for doodads.
   18. there needs to be several GUI menus. The precise number depends on
       gameplay breakdown.
 
   17. each hero type and henchman needs to have pithy and unique voice lines.
       this is a stretch goal.
   18. there should be music tracks for each part of the game - beginning,
       middle, and end.
   19. there should be sounds for each action that takes place in the game
       including combat, UI interactions, and spellcasts.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

--- #31 notes/symbeline-2 ---
════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Code Name: Symbeline
 
 ----------------------------- gdd initial draft -------------------------------
 
    1. introduction to fantasy (elevator pitches)
    2. kickstarter demands
    2. introduction to core gameplay loop
    4. tenants and core values of the game design
    3. introduction to game modes
    5. introduction to technical requirements
    6. breakdown of core gameplay loop
    7. breakdown of game modes
    8. breakdown of fantasy
    9. breakdown of technical requirements
 
 -------------------------- introduction to fantasy-----------------------------
 
    Symbeline is a macro based strategy game and city-builder based around the
 concept of indirect control. It's inspirations are Majesty the Fantasy Kingdom
 Simulator (2000), Supreme Commander (2007), and Hearts of Iron IV (2016). It is
 designed to appeal to fans of tabletop roleplaying games with it's focus on
 dynamic worldbuilding and sandbox playstyle. The gameplay consists of multiple
 playstyles depending on which aspects of the game appeal to the player, with
 choices between an economic focus via the GUI, longterm planning and resource
 allocation, or diplomacy and subterfuge a'la Ruinarch (2020).
 
 ---------------------------- kickstarter demands ------------------------------
 
    1. prototype
    2. gdd
    3. estimates for character and environment art
    4. estimates for music and sounds
    5. estimates for engine development
    6. estimates for community management
    7. breakdown of mvp, ideal game state, and stretch goals
 
 ----------------------- introduction to core gameplay loop --------------------
 
    1. management of lanes, both width and length
    2. casting of spells and utilization of special boons
    3. city building with placement, upgrades, and henchmen pathing routes
    4. satisfying guild requirements of equipment, manpower, and special
       resources by managing shipments and local income (UI commodity trading)
    5. placement of generalized bounties
       (think champion's guild from Majesty, not reward flags)
    6. diplomacy with neutral, AI, or player controlled kingdoms. Capabilities
       include pacts and treaties, projects, subterfuge, and tournaments. The
       diplomacy system can be a stretch goal.
 
 -------------------------- tenants and core values ----------------------------
 
    1. always something to do, but nothing falls apart without your attention.
    2. gameplay should be focused on macro rather than micro. Longterm planning
       and strategic decision making are favored over tactics and skill.
    3. defeat should feel avoidable until the last moment, and only as a result
       of longterm continuous failures rather than short-term mistakes or being
       blindsided by a cheesy tactic.
    4. victory should be gained through exploiting weaknesses and by using
       lateral thinking.
    5. the careful balance of internal and external threats is essential.
    6. rapid expansion leads to depletion of internal resources, while slowly
       expanding can lead to a lack of options
    7. the world should feel alive and reactive to your decisions.
    8. your kingdom should feel alive and reactive to your decisions.
    9. your heroes should feel alive and completely ignorant of your decisions.
   10. there should always be opportunities for cooperation with your fellow
       kingdoms.
   11. the frontlines should feel peaceful outside of large battles.
   12. everything is flexible and dependant on circumstance
   13. there should be enough space on the map for multiple parties of heroes
       to pass each other like ships in the night without engaging in combat.
       It should feel like the real world, with canyons and valleys and rivers
       and mountains - room for lairs and wild animals to roam.
   14. monsters are always more dangerous than other humans.
   15. the art style should be rooted in classic medieval fantasy. 
   16. equipment should feel either mass-produced (kingdom), organic (monsters),
       ancient (lair treasure), or artisinal (enchanted).
   17. heroes should feel campy, fun, and adventurous. Avoid dark, grim, and
       fearful.
   18. This game is a toy.
   19. This toy should run on any modern computer.
   20. This toy should encourage modding.
 
 -------------------------- introduction to game modes -------------------------
 
    1. singleplayer - single kingdom against an island of monsters and neutral
                      settlements. essentially the multiplayer game against
                      zero opponents.
    2. singleplayer - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and
                      neutral settlements. One player controlled kingdom against
                      multiple AI controlled kingdoms.
    3. singleplayer - scenarios, similar to MFKS
    4. multiplayer  - multiple kingdoms against an island of monsters and
                      neutral settlements. Essentially the singleplayer game
                      with networking added in.
    5. multiplayer  - co-op scenarios where multiple players play as the same
                      kingdom. A test of the core tenant "there's always
                      something to do"
    6. multiplayer  - co-op island invasion. Essentially the multiplayer game
                      with more than one player controlling a kingdom.
    7. singleplayer - play in 3rd person as a hero in an AI kingdom. Mostly for
                      the novelty since the core gameplay loop is focused on
                      city-building. A test of the core tenant "nothing falls
                      apart without your attention"
 
    1 is mvp. 2-6 are stretch goals in order of ascending difficulty. They
    should build upon one another - the main steps are:
 
    1. singleplayer island invasion (biggest step)
    2. AI controlled kingdoms
    3. scenarios
    4. multiplayer (second biggest step)
    5. cooperatively controlling the same kingdom
    6. 3rd person perspective and character controller
 
 ------------------------ technical requirements -------------------------------
    
    1. this game will be written in lua (with Fennel support) and using Raylib.
    2. the prototype will be made with Godot using GDscript.
    3. if the performance demands are too much for lua or the engine is out of
       scope for the budget, Rust with the Bevy engine could be used.
    4. the final product will include a custom 2d engine designed for large
       scale maps with an isometric perspective and a data-first design.
    5. the game should be as concurrent as possible, to support large numbers of
       cpu cores and compute shaders.
    6. the game will be data-driven, meaning the visual aspects are simply a
       representation of the interactions of the underlying simulation, rather
       than an intrinsic component of the computation.
    7. Each "event" in the game (a character moves, a building is placed, a
       monster spawns, etc) will send a message to the visual processing side of
       the engine, which will present a representation to the user.
    8. the map will be a hex grid with pointed-top hexagons. The visual
       representation of the underlying data may be continuous (non-hex) but the
       underlying data will be represented on a hexagonal grid.
 
    9. there needs to be character portraits for each type of monster, henchmen,
       and hero type. You should be able to recognize what attributes a hero
       specializes in by their portrait. Mvp is 1 attribute, but more can be
       a stretch goal.
   10. Each building, upgrade, and equipment type needs an icon. Stretch goals
       can be portraits.
 
   11. each henchman, hero type, and monster needs 3 sprites for each action.
       more actions may be added if budget allows, but mvp is movement and
       attacking. Several additional sprites may be necessary, like dying,
       standing still, gathering loot, socializing, or any others.
   12. each building needs 4 sprites for the construction process and 4 for the
       destruction process. Flame effects are stretch goals.
   13. each building needs an animated sprite for when it is in use.
   14. each lair needs a sprite and an icon.
   15. each spell needs an icon and a spell effect sprite. Each projectile needs
       a sprite.
   16. a stretch goal would be differing sprites for each piece of equipment.
       included with this would be engine work to allow for dynamic sprites.
   17. each terrain type should have a ground material and sprites for doodads.
   18. there needs to be several GUI menus. The precise number depends on
       gameplay breakdown.
 
   17. each hero type and henchman needs to have pithy and unique voice lines.
       this is a stretch goal.
   18. there should be music tracks for each part of the game - beginning,
       middle, and end.
   19. there should be sounds for each action that takes place in the game
       including combat, UI interactions, and spellcasts.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

--- #32 fediverse/4072 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────
 I like games that test my reflexes
 
 I also like games that test my wit
 
 but most of all I like games that test my patience with strategy
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────┘

--- #33 fediverse/5348 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────
 if you want to share something you found online with someone but you don't
 want someone to be associated with their social media presence, don't post a
 link to their social media presence. instead, take a snip snipping tool print
 screen screenshot which is as easy as typing a word and selecting a unit in a
 real time strategy game.
 
 ah, but then you gotta insert it into a paint program to save it, so that's
 another keypress, and gosh what to name it I wish I could just proclaim it gee
 wouldn't it be nice if everyone was watching me?
 
 ... psychho
                                                           ───────────┐
 similar                        chronological                        different═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────┘

--- #34 fediverse/2879 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────
 ┌────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: tech info-dump │
 └────────────────────────┘


 @user-1370 
 
 I love this a lot! I want to put function pointers in a "matrix architecture
 array" and make them point to different functions at different points in the
 program. I bet you could even point them at each other, so like if M and Y
 then point at N, A, Y or something.
 
 this is really cool I like stuff like this tomorrow I'll take pictures of
 something similar I'm working on! I abandoned it tho hehe anyway remind me if
 I forget!!
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────┘

--- #35 fediverse/3063 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────
 @user-570 
 
 true. the "massively multiplayer" aspect of WoW is about as important to the
 game as the "A" is in "ARPG".
 
 I can't help but feel like the "impromptu groups" functionality feels a bit
 better than matchmaker instancing... though anything worth running a group for
 in WoW after TBC was instanced >.>
 
 Honestly I think there's just too many games these days for people to really
 get "into" MMORPGs, unless they're sufficiently unique in their mechanics
 (like EVE or Runescape)
 
 any ARPG MMOs are dead on launch, as you said. That design space is tapped
 out, at least for now, until someone comes along and makes it a deckbuilding
 roguelike or whatever. cough cough
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────┘

--- #36 fediverse/933 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────────────
 @user-643 
 
 virtual machines are cool. betcha can't write one using bytecode
 
 https://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/bytecode.html
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┘

--- #37 notes/symbeline-superheros ---
════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────
 imagine low level characters in CoH/V
 
 playing a game of symbeline
 
 and you as the ruler
 
 can slot enhancements and dole out inspirations
 
 as they sweep the streets like you play CoX
 
 instead of a MMO
 
 it's a deckbuilding strategy
 
 with a slice of zachtronics for the economy
 
 wiring up machines in ever expanding deseagns
 
 like automating factorio's gameplay loop
 
 boxes within boxes
 
 of intrinsic delight
 
 like making a CPUter
 
 or designing a computer program
 
 while playing a video game ^_^
 
 and the games that you make
 
 can be shared and played when unique
 
 so go for it and make that you're dreaming!
 
 ===============================================================================
 =
 
 the goal of each "level" is to solve a particular problem - like how do I make
 a
 2 bit register - or something like that. When accomplished, it unlocks
 something
 for your heroes to acquire. And each playthrough will require a repeat until
 you
 have it memorized at which point you can unlock "perma-badges" that make it
 always unlocked at the start of the game. Like learning Kanji, you need spaced
 repetition. BUT ANYWAYS it'll be in magical terms like "unlock essence-stones"
 or "learn the ritual of desire" or whatever. And each of those terms roughly
 corresponds to a pattern in electrical engineering (designing CPUs and such)
 And you can learn advanced versions of what you already know by uncovering
 "lost
 secrets" (which is a reward your heros can find) - Basically it'd be like a
 "clue" that shows you a ghost version of something you haven't figured out yet
 -
 and it'd be a slow process because you need to slow down the learning process
 or
 else you'll forget. Basically teasing it out of the player when they seem to be
 stuck. Asking probing questions and whatnot, and eventually culminating in the
 final question, assuming the quest is succeeding. Because if you think about it
 all ancient quests were simply journeys for reason - searching for the answer
 to
 some ancient riddle or bastardized retelling. Looking for answers in an
 unknowing world. So ANYWAY as your heros discover things you as the ruler get
 answers to the economic puzzle - how to design transistors and whatnot. But
 they
 would be in theme appropriate terms, of course. You don't even have to know a
 lot about mechanical electrical design, because ChatGPT knows. All you need to
 do is build the basic building blocks, and BAM you got a great place to
 integrate chatgpt. Just prime it such that it's giving hints one by one each
 slightly more revealing until eventually after X amount of clues the solution
 is
 automatically shown (like a blueprint) and the player can remember it or not
 but
 each playthrough they'll have to build it again from scratch (reinforcement 
 learning) so eventually they'll be able to do it real quick. Essentially,
 "Abstraction - The Game"
 
 great so you got your economic simulation, pretty easy too just some UI work
 
 and for the heroes you're playing an ARPG sorta (supcom anyone?)
 
 Think Bannerlord for the scaling on the map
 
 then think of 5+ different "themes" like fantasy or superhero or pirates
 
 each "theme" will correspond to like a faction in Mount and Blade
 
 and all you have to do is generate pictures using Midjourney
 
 and text descriptions a'la the magic scroll
 
 shown as "bubble pop-ups" on the map that the player can click
 
 never overwhelming, but descripting what's happening
 
 and also some more UI work because you gotta display all that to the player
 
 Maybe it could be a rolling story, news ticker style - like slowly scrolling
 lines of text about what's happening in the world
 
 and the player could have it open in one window and something else in the other
 and whenever they're waiting on something (say, a processing intensive AI task
 on their computer) they could just glance over and read what's going on in
 their
 fantasy world
 
 okay okay but also they could play as a hero
 
 it could be an ARPG experience except instead of clicking to fight you play a
 little automatic Star Realms game and depending on your deck choices you'd have
 a different playthrough. Again, not a game that requires much thought, but one
 you can have in the background.
 
 Also there'd be pictures, like a slowly evolving storyline of events - think of
 it like the artists of the time drawing paintings about what's going on in the
 story - major events would be highlighted and kept in the painting until even-
 -tually they get replaced - sorta like the Smash Bros scrolling painting (oh
 it's so good)
 
 ===============================================================================
 =
 
 it doesn't have to be an expansionist game
 
 maybe you guys just live in your little valley
 
 and the world turns around you
 
 maybe it's called "symbeline" because the people are of the forest
 
 and they live like elves in society
 
 monsters could wander in, and heros could tackle them
 
 but most of the time would be spent looking for trouble
 
 going on patrol
 
 you know, breaking skeleton bones and being superheros
 
 okay okay you know that superhero faction? What if they had MEDIEVAL TECHNOLOGY
 but MODERN DAY SUPERPOWERS at a cost - the society was beset by hordes of
 monst-
 -ers. Those few who escaped are now superpowered and they live as friendly and
 nomadic wanderers through their own territory. Always adventuring, and always
 searching for their life, finding whatever the road may carry them to. It's a
 great life, and life seems to flourish in their footsteps - they are like part
 dryad/druid and part wolf. Because sometimes there's evil threats, and they
 must
 be defeated by an equally strong good power. That's how it goes, and that's how
 it be.
 
 For imagery I'm thinking a mix of the tribes from Dominions (deer, wolf, bear,
 etc) but they're like, 1.5x as big as regular people and quite strong. The
 outsiders call them "giants" or "goliaths" but really they're just infused with
 the lifeforce of their people. They are radical individualists, but they all
 unite for a common cause. They know their bond is the strongest thing there is,
 and they use it to great effect when the time comes. AHHH THEY'RE SO COOL I
 LOVE
 THEM okay okay what about the other factions? PIRATES? Oh think about it like
 it's st patricks day WHAT IF THEY WERE IRISH PIRATES omg omg omg that sounds so
 cool I'm DIGGING this okay what about the other factions? You need 5+ you said
 hmmmmmmmmm good question I have 3 now so that's 2 more.
 
 yep...
 
 ===============================================================================
 =
 
 okay dude check this what if they were a nation of wizards that focused on the
 power of animation - what if they generated constructs, sorta like in Supreme
 Commander so they were EVEN MORE individualist - haha no they'd have a normal
 population it's just a few of them who would be wizards - because their output
 wasn't measured by manpower, but rather by brainpower. Whoever could design the
 greatest machine was exemplared, and eventually they became the best and
 brightest among us. They were put in charge of the golem creation factories,
 and
 they used them instead of heros. SO BASICALLY YOUR HEROS NEVER DIE they just 
 have successes and failures JUST LIKE IN SUPREME COMMANDER okay the plot of
 this
 game is "what if all my favorite games were the essence of life and death in a
 fantasy game" like OMG KEEP EM COMIN'
 
 so. who is the player? THE PLAYER is the one who's overseeing it all. They have
 dominion over the entire kingdom, and they guide their people toward a bright
 future. They are vulnerable in their castle, but their people have their back.
 Together they fight for the future. They slot enhancements and dole out
 inspirations and solve the economic puzzle in the background. They also make
 decisions about what kind of equipment production to prioritize - because each
 game they have to invent everything from scratch. All their production is made
 with endless abstraction, and whatever you prioritize is what's magnified in
 your kingdom. You choose a style and it plays as well as it's guile,
 
 I dunno this seems like a lot, what would you need to make this a reality?
 
 hmmmm let's break it down:
 
 first you need to implement the star realms gameplay
 
 then you need to hook it up to a square grid and have multiple occurences at
 once.
 
 then you need UI for the character sheets
 
 and you need logic to open separate windows for each output type
 
 you need... a lot of things
 
 okay let's talk more broadly - what do you need from other people and what can
 you do on your own?
 
 hmmm good question. I can do the star realms gameplay, and the simulation for
 the wiring systems - because I have the VM. Make that into the gameplay somehow
 okay good idea like okay authoring vm package routing deliveries between the
 various nodes that you set up in the economic system - 
 
 side note, the peril of Spore was that it took to little time to develop a
 species. it should have lasted as long as WoW takes to get to max level. That
 would have given them time to reiterate the gameplay loops to make sure they
 worked correctly. ANYWAY
 
 okay authoring VM package routing. The player could set up delivery patterns
 based on A MAZE OMG your kingdom is like a maze and you need to get deliveries
 out, or else how would anything function? SO you act as a trailblazer, finding
 ways through the labyrinth and "piloting" a car sorta like that game at Disney
 quest with the cars under the floor - except you can see both the top view of
 the maze and you're trying to guide the car in real time as it travels through
 the maze - the faster you can get to the end the better ofc. like talking to
 the
 delivery driver through the movement
 
 do I like that idea more or less than the first one? First idea being the idea
 that you're making lists of commands for a VM  to execute. I don't think they'd
 be a good idea to mix. So which one gets it? The VM of course has the edge
 because that's what the technology is based on. But will it translate to good
 gameplay? Idk. This second idea is certainly better gameplay, but is it
 engaging? Idk! Idk. I'm not a miracle worker. But I do have good ideas, and I
 need to be told that sometimes I guess.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

--- #38 notes/wow-chat-biomes ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────
 there should be biomes in wowchat - like, paint on a map where the oozes can
 go, and it'll spawn a random ooze for ya.
 
 next find the ones that are wildlife, and paint a zone where wildlife creatures
 can spawn. make sure they're initially friendly but will attack if you do.
 
 then give +reputation to the wolves if you fight monsters besides them
 
 and +reputation to the cats if you fight undead
 
 this is easily implementable.
 
 all you have to do is walk around, find the rough general border points with
 your character at 5x speed, and then type them into a text file.
 
 it's not like Azeroth changed.
 
 then, ideally, make small dense zones which travel and cause their monsters
 to either spawn at a point or move toward a point.
 
 then let the "flock" travel as it pleased, traversing the
 map-painted-lua-script
 -ed-monster-delivery-system-I-wield
                                                           ────────┐
 similar                        chronological                        different════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────┘

--- #39 fediverse/2998 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────
 in some games, like Star Wars Battlefront II, you unlock certain "badges"
 during gameplay. Like, "scored 10 points in one life" or "healed for 200hp" or
 whatever.
 
 these "badges" have names, like "guardian" or "hope"
 
 I wonder if you attached a player's history of medals earned to an LLM
 somehow, perhaps by feeding an array of them in as input, what would happen
 then? perhaps a narrative could be
 
 == stack overflow ==========
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--- #40 fediverse/895 ---
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 most video game ideas suck
 
 most of the time they're like "oh what if we had a racoon who found a magic
 hat and saved the world from sentient apple blossoms"
 
 that's not a game idea, that's a painting
 
 a game is mechanics, and you can use the aesthetic to justify the mechanics,
 but not generally the other way around.
 
 the art isn't bad, but the art isn't the game. a game idea is "what if
 tic-tac-toe had an extra square in the center" or "what if chess was played
 with checkers, to hide your moves from your opponent"
 
 there have been thousands of super mario bros. if games were designed as an
 API, we could use whatever visuals we wanted, and those could be copyrighted
 and sold if you really want. but mechanics are the basis for everything they
 are built on, so doesn't it make sense to separate the two? abstracting the
 logic such that two complementary functions are accomplished, [see code editor
 idea], more flavors of game could be produced.
 
 rulesets can be switched in and out too, as an API is just an engin
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--- #41 fediverse/161 ---
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 I wish games started with everything unlocked and if you wanted you could
 "start a journey" or whatever and lock everything but a few options... then
 slowly as you play the game you unlock new things to do until eventually
 you're back where you started.
 
 Essentially... starting at level 100 and having the option to prestige right
 away. If you want the experience. While playing a game. That you have every
 right to enjoy as you will.
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--- #42 fediverse/5843 ---
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 me when it's cold out: we should all bundle up and get through the winter,
 every year that passes is more time to gather our strength
 
 me when the temperature rises: okay so this is being handled by those guys,
 we're moving this way to do this, and - when did you say the this-and-that was
 happening? alright so when you do that-or-this, make sure that you pay
 attention to the so-and-so and don't forget to eat real meals, candy or chips
 don't count.
 
 me when the eyes are on me: imma play video games and smoke weed and be a
 useless little creature who does nothing but occasionally wanders around the
 city doing nothing for nobody and dropping notes on post-its that don't mean
 anything but are kinda cool to read
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--- #43 fediverse/4608 ---
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 every time a game developer makes a game where the world is in peril and the
 main character must save it, for every successful playthrough where the good
 guy wins there are thousands of doomed worlds where the player got distracted
 or bored and left the people to rot.
 
 how tragic.
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--- #44 fediverse/1184 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 whoa, cool! So with one of these you can flash any ROM you want onto the
 cartridge and it should play any GBA/GBC game you uhhh legally own and have
 pulled the ROM from? If so that's pretty neat
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--- #45 fediverse/3164 ---
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 it fails after like 15 or 20 scrapes but I think that's just their scraping
 policy. They don't have a robots.txt file that I could find. So... just run
 it, then come back every 15 to 30 minutes and restart it until you're done.
 
 Maybe I could increase the sleep duration? one sec lemme try that
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--- #46 fediverse/1176 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 we should build a stockpile of things like this, and if the supply ever dips
 below a certain threshold (20% maybe?) we should spin up a new factory that
 produces them until we're back at a healthy margin, based on present (and
 projected future) demand.
 
 It seems like just a video game console, but these are our heritage. They
 define our culture in a way that is incalculable in value. WHY would we ever
 run out? It's inconceivable, it's not like they go bad! Okay maybe the
 batteries corrode or something, but that's a solvable problem.
 
 Maybe even on the second production run we could improve them somehow, I
 dunno. Give them a better processor that's fully backwards compatible, so we
 can make new and better games for them.
 
 Or just leave them as they are, I dunno I'm not a market analyst. But the
 point is that we, in this technologically advanced future society, should not
 run out of gameboys.
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--- #47 fediverse/3680 ---
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 it's probably a good idea to write pseudocode, then real code, instead of
 starting with real code, and bugfixing something incomplete and more difficult
 to reason with.
 
 unless you write real code easier than pseudocode. idk do what works for you.
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--- #48 fediverse/3101 ---
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 if you don't have a lot of time but still like games, like for example a new
 parent or if you're focused on your career or always traveling, I recommend
 the game
 
 Star Realms
 
 in the digital version, which can be played on a phone or computer, has a mode
 called "48 hour turns" where each of your moves has time to think for two
 entire days. Most of the time you won't need two days, but it gives time to
 work on other things.
 
 for people who enjoy this mode, it is not uncommon to have 3-5 games running
 at once. When they have time, they can play as many as they can, and as long
 as they're keeping up with it there's very little chance they'll lose time.
 
 kinda like words with friends, except space strategy.
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--- #49 fediverse/581 ---
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 @user-428 
 
 sometimes I think about how much more productive I'd be if I had a code editor
 that let me draw arrows and smiley faces and such alongside the code. Or if I
 could position things strangely, like two functions side-by-side with boxes
 drawn around them. Or diagrams or flowcharts or graphs or...
 
 something that would output to raw txt format, but would present itself as an
 image that could be edited.
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--- #50 notes/symbeline-aspects ---
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 7-24-22
 
 There are three aspects to this game. Broadly, they are military, economics,
 and diplomacy. More specifically, they are lateral problem solving and lane
 management, logistic traffic management, and a worker-placement bluffing game.
 
 These three aspects can be toggled on and off at will, essentially designating
 one or more as "AI controlled" and will require no input from the player. They
 will time their progression to be about at the same rate as the player, thus
 creating a balanced feel to the game. They also provide alerts and
 notifications to the player, for example if military is AI controlled and it
 needs a certain type of hero to progress, it'll ask for it specifically.
 
 Each aspect will develop and progress at it's own rate, and the difficulty
 increases as each milestone is achieved. This is to allow the player to create
 their own difficulty curve, mediated primarily by their drive to proceed.
 An analogy would be in Factorio, the game doesn't increase in difficulty unless
 the player builds pollution spawning factories - in the same way, in Symbeline
 the difficulty doesn't increase unless the player solves lane challenges in the
 military aspect, develops new trade routes / traffic paths in the economic
 aspect, or creates new treaties in the diplomatic aspect.
 
 In order to properly explain each aspect, a brief overview will be necessary.
 
 In Symbeline, the game plays as a factory might operate. The economic aspect
 produces heroes, items, and other deliverables that are consumed by the
 military and diplomatic aspects. There are various problems that need to be
 solved far from the capital, such as a particular type of monster that is weak
 or immune to various damage types which necessitates particular heroes or
 items in order to progress on the military aspect. All of the resources in the
 game operate on an "income based" system, where output is not measured in total
 amounts but rather in terms of how much is produced versus consumed. If the
 input cannot meet the demand, the output is slowed. If input exceeds demand it
 can be converted into gold which can be used to hire guards and heroes.
 Resources can be produced inside and outside of the city, depending on their
 type. But they need to be moved around to various shops for various processing
 and productive purposes, so pathways must be constructed to deliver those
 goods. In addition, each building must be supported by several houses for the
 workers to live in, and the closer they are to the building the better. The
 denizens of the kingdom don't mind being shuffled about, so they'll organize
 themselves according to what's most efficient. However they will not organize
 the paths they take to get places, which is the primary gameplay for the
 player - designing routes for each building and ensuring they don't overlap or
 cross too many times, causing traffic and disruptions to your income.
 
 Each choice the player makes is immediately reflected in the income
 calculation, thus allowing for the visual aspect of the game to be wholely
 separate from the economic side - in fact this is a common thread throughout
 all three aspects. Computation power is the ultimate enemy of scale, and this
 game flourishes with a massive scale.
 
 The gameplay for the military aspect consists of manipulating "lanes" that
 designate where each hero will adventure. These lanes are scalable to the
 player / AI's whims, with a careful balance required - too thin, and the heroes
 might not encounter enough monsters to level up. Too thick, and they may find
 themselves patrolling a vast wilderness full of dark and evil monsters. At the
 end of every lane is a "frontline", where progress has essentially been halted.
 These frontlines can develop as a result of meeting a foreign kingdoms front
 or finding a monster type or puzzle that is particularily difficult for your
 heroes to overcome. The lane / frontline can be scaled not just laterally, but
 linearly as well such that heroes will be a certain level when they reach the
 end - think scrolling on a mousewheel translating into deepening level zones.
 In addition, each monster zone can be set to a certain "security level" meaning
 how many monsters are there for your heroes to defeat. It's important that they
 have ample targets for training, however it's always more effective to train on
 monsters near their level so you have to be careful not to wipe out the native
 skeleton / goblin / troll population.
 
 Each monster zone can have a relationship with the kingdom, on a 2x2 matrix -
 cultivating / desecrating the land, and fostering / exterminating the monsters.
 The land produces monsters and treasures, while the monsters provide experience
 and danger to the heroes and kingdom denizens who live there. However by
 desecrating the land, farms may be built and by exterminating the monsters,
 those farms may be safe and require fewer guards. As ruler, you must balance
 the development of unique magical and alchemical productions with the need for
 food and other mundane requirements.
 
 Diplomacy is a careful balance of internal and external matters, played out
 through feasts, tournaments, and faires. Each of these events will require
 input from the economic side and military side, and will involve "courting"
 other nobles from neighboring kingdoms to sway them to supporting your edicts.
 When hosting an event, you may pick a particular topic of conversation for your
 nobles to discuss with their guests. You may also assign your nobles to
 attempt to engage with a particular foreign noble. Each member of your court
 has a differing personality (including you, the Majesty) and depending on how
 you assign them you may experience better or worse results - such as assigning
 someone who's kind to talk with someone who's cruel would impart a malus to
 their conversation. Unless the kind person has the trusting trait, in which
 case they'd succeed in this encounter but fall sway to them in future
 conversations... Complex interactions that all boil down to a single pair of
 d12 dice - one for your noble, one for the enemy. This represents the charisma
 of the two conversants on that particular day, and whoever wins the roll sways
 the other to supporting their edict. Speaking of edicts, they may include trade
 agreements, non-aggression pacts (lasting for a short time), and other
 regulations - perhaps your greatest rival utilizes necromancy, so it would
 behoove you to attempt to regulate the practice and limit it's effect. By
 swaying the nobles of their kingdom, you may be able to enact a mutual
 agreement to limit the usage of dark magics, essentially hamstringing their
 progress. But in order to learn of their necromantic usage, you'll need
 espionage... Which brings us to spies.
 
 Spies are similar to nobles in that they can be assigned to various roles,
 however they take a more passive role, acting in the background. The
 information they gather is compiled into a report that is presented at
 pertinent parts of the game, such as when preparing for a feast or inspecting
 an enemy frontline. These reports are considered the diplomatic deliverables,
 giving information and mechanical bonuses to many different parts of the game.
 They may be given three possible roles - information, defence, or offense.
 Offense involves placing cursed artifacts (creating through economy) in enemy
 lands, which debuff their heroes when used and bind themselves to them
 preventing their removal except through extraordinary means. Defence is
 essentially countering that in your own kingdom, and uncovering disloyalty in
 your nobles.
 
 These three aspects fit together like interlocking puzzle pieces, but each is
 able to be utilized or ignored depending on the preferences of the player.
 It is important that the game doesn't progress unless input is received. The
 simulation plays in the background, but each stage of development must be
 considered "stable" such that nothing changes. There are three different
 exceptions to this rule, one for each aspect:
 
 The military side encounters raids from enemy kingdoms and the dark lord.
 The economic side encounters raids from ratmen and moss trolls and bandits.
 The diplomatic side has a rolling schedule of events that must be attended.
 
 These three "exceptions" are recurrent events that require attention, but they
 don't *increase* in difficulty unless the player takes an action that causes
 it. Meaning, if the player overcomes the rock golems, then they are displaced
 from their home and join the dark lord in his conquests. If a new district is
 built new sewer connections must be built as well, creating a larger attack
 surface for ratmen to exploit. As time goes by, various foreign events must be
 attended, as absence causes your future events to attract fewer foreign nobles.
 
 By addressing these threats, your kingdom may grow and eventually overcome the
 dark lord at the center of the island.
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--- #51 fediverse/3578 ---
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 It's so sad how some of the best games ever made get glossed over because the
 fun you remember is the friendship and fantasy you felt rather than the game
 itself
 
 time marches forward, and culture changes to no longer fit the old tools quite
 right. Plus they look like PS1 graphics ewwwwww look at those muddy textures
 and blocky bits arranged into triangles and meshes! how dorky, how retro
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--- #52 notes/portfolio ---
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 game design:
 
 spiral dominions
 symbeline gdd
 Joust
 War (bytecode VM)
 grid based warcraft map with random terrain and custom AI
 Progress
 [Title of Game]
 
 I appreciate Rust, I can understand Rust, but I can't write Rust.
 
 Python just kinda... works. It doesn't have a lot of the type checking that
 other languages have, so it requires some vigilance and diligence. But that's
 alright, you just gotta work on it.
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--- #53 fediverse/204 ---
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 @user-95 hehe true. I have a Pathfinder 1e one shot tomorrow and I haven't
 built my character yet D: to say nothing of all the long term "productive"
 things I've been directed away from... Oh also my best friend wants me to
 write a program in C that cracks a 9 character password (all lowercase
 letters) and I sooooorta know how to do that but getting high certainly won't
 help
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--- #54 fediverse/1156 ---
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 why the heck do GAME engines not include a skippable tutorial that lights up
 UI elements and explains how everything works by navigating you through
 building an example project one step at a time
 
 like, game jam material, nothing fancy
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--- #55 fediverse/3034 ---
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 @user-570 
 
 I've messed around with Bevy and the library most similar in C is Raylib. in
 Lua it'd be Love2D I think.
 
 I love the idea of those systems. I haven't built a full game using them but I
 can conceptualize operations within them easier using a framework like that
 versus a game engine like Godot.
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--- #56 fediverse/2947 ---
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 the downside of Proton and Lutris is now the ONLY games that work on Steam are   │
 either continually updated (untenable) or playable on Lutris or Proton. Same     │
 thing with Wine, though there's always at least one decent substitute.           │
 kinda makes me want to write a manager-style program which runs programs using   │
 whichever version of their git repository would work best for their system /     │
 configuration / purposes. Idk how I would start working on that though.          │
 I bet you could make one that acted like a shop, but where you didn't charge     │
 any dollars. You could like... "swipe" through UI options, and pick whichever    │
 felt most useful for your setup. Like, how some people use i3 and some use dwm   │
 with maybe inspectors that are modeled off of video-game style "options" GUIs    │
 that mainly correspond to flags on the command/terminal line or compilation      │
 flags                                                                            │
 I feel like that kind of abstraction would make it a lot easier for users to     │
 adjust their system. they're noobs, after all. gotta show them all the choices   │
 in one place...                                                                  │
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--- #57 fediverse/1600 ---
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 @user-1037 
 
 oooo those are cool, but it didn't have the "puzzlepiece" arrangement. It was
 more... 2 dimensional I think? More like putting marbles on a chinese-checkers
 board. And they had relationships if you moused over them, like...
 semi-transparent arrows connecting them I think? It was different than
 anything I'd ever seen before.
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--- #58 notes/game-design-mech-commander ---
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 okay picture a game where you command a mech (supreme commander style) but from
 a third person perspective - you have enhanced sensors tthat let you visualize
 the battle area as a small arena - and you can build factories and give them
 orders and attack your foe from quite a distance. You could queue up orders for
 yourself, and use floating cameras to go back to previous areas and issue more
 orders. Basically the precursor / smaller scale version of Supreme Commander.
 
 build a factory, move on. Build a factory, move on. Encountered the enemy? Push
 forward and through. Build a factory, move on. Build some defences to slow down
 the enemy, move on. Establish resource extraction and defend it well, that your
 enemy may decide it's not worth the trouble and just focus on following you.
 Then, you have free resources available as long as it isn't destroyed. You can
 use this to snowball - the pursuer is also the pursuee, as it's sorta like a
 yin/hang thing around a central point. Like a spherical shaped map instead of
 a square.
 
 Every time you build a factory you have the choice of either sending the units
 on an attack-move order or having them queue up on your commander. You can use
 a map to plot the route they'll take, but you probably want to avoid their main
 force because MANYvONE = failure for the one. You could also tell them to wait,
 and protect the base they're in. Then, when the enemy approaches they could do
 raids on their reinforcements and attack the previous base the enemy built, or
 they could stay and slow them down. It just depends on what kind of defences
 you
 want to build (if any at all, sometimes producing units is enough)
 
 the commander decides when to push and when to entrench, they know where to
 target the enemy and they know where to shore up. They are the guidance of the
 army, and in command of the fleet.
 
 That's sorta what Planetary Annihilation was supposed to be, but it didn't
 really work out that way. You needed to be in too many places at once, and
 there
 was a real limit to the value of the "strategic zoom" replacement they had to
 deploy. Unfortunately it was just more difficult than anticipated, and that's
 alright. Lessons have been learned.
 
 the next approach should go the next direction - taking a page from the
 "factorio" book by having a roving commander who creates all orders and leaving
 behind a "factory" that produces toward an ultimate goal. It simulates pushing
 into enemy territory, it elaborates on the snowballing mechanic, and it makes
 meaningful decisions about what choices to make.
 
 It should be designed such that a prudent commander is always scouting. Always
 sending planes over enemy territory to gain knowledge. They can use this to
 sense weaknesses in the opponents defence - to prepare a counter-attack. But
 the enemy can outfox this, by building units and sending them from afar. Or
 even just building them there, in that factory. The enemy can't spy on that, at
 least not until it's probably too late. For they have to advance on their own
 and their attention is limited. But units can often be weaker, or sent off on
 an
 assault of their own. It's a balanced trade-off.
 
 infantry assault anti-air units, tanks approach tanks, artillery bombs whoever
 is standing still or defensive structures.
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--- #59 fediverse/240 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐                                                         │
 │ CW: game-design      │                                                         │
 └──────────────────────┘                                                         │
 i like to design games. my darling is a game based on Majesty (2000) the         │
 Fantasy Kingdom Sim. you can think of it like a management strategy game where   │
 you control the knobs and levers that a fantasy monarch might have -             │
 allocating funds, placing quest bounties, hiring heroes, and organizing the      │
 peasantry. the important part is that your units are not controllable - they     │
 just do their own thing.                                                         │
 unrelated, but I think we should design games as APIs that a user's preferred    │
 tool could interface with and render as they will. it'd help a lot with          │
 cross-platform compatibility and would allow people to customize parts of the    │
 game to their desires.                                                           │
 unrelated, but I think if you could design an AI that could play games           │
 (perhaps through an API) that it hadn't been trained on, I think you would       │
 have a pretty convincing argument for abstract "problem solving" capabilities.   │
 unrelated, but games like the one I described are good for situations where      │
 people don't have to trust their monarch. to it you are AGI                      │
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--- #60 fediverse/211 ---
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 │ CW: re: gaming-gambling-mentioned │
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 [1] in this way you'd sorta be giving a loan to the game's company (while also
 letting them take a 10% courtesy fee for keeping the official* servers
 running) which is then "spent" on exciting and friendly competition. Sorta
 like... entering a poker tournament with your friends (even though you suspect
 you might lose money) just because you like hanging out and playing cards. the
 money is just a neat way to keep things moving and exciting.
 
 * official just means "run by the company" because naturally the serverside
 code should be open source. how else would people build on it?
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--- #61 fediverse/6107 ---
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 commanding a coding agent to write bash is a lot different than telling it to
 write a systems analysize.
 
 one is "hey can you examine this repository and make a note somewhere on a
 todo-list or whatever that there needs to be a bugfix in relation to the
 options setting input translation recommendation algorithm matchbox field
 because when I click on it the program crashes"
 
 and the other is like "okay now put the box over there. great now drag it a
 little bit closer. okay now take the refluxinator and adjust the bamboozlewhap
 to account of brass-terminatrix-incorporated and strip out the
 question-mark-eyes"
 
 wait actually neither of them is like that okay the bash one is like: "okay
 yeah do it. sure. yeah okay. yes, but we should put them at this location:
 [loc]. ummm it still has this error message. it still says the same error.
 okay now it says this, I don't think it's gonna work so let's try this other
 thing."
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--- #62 messages/910 ---
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 all you need is to be steam friends with one person and then your whole
 organization knows what you're trying to say with game titles
 
 (I just like games)
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--- #63 notes/symbeline-design-the-guild ---
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 design the guild, design the capital, then design their path through mordaunts.
 easy peasy.
 
 design the guild like a museum. Each spot there's an exhibit which teaches the
 randomly generated rolled statistics hero something new. Maybe it teaches them
 how to use certain weaponry, maybe it teaches them how to use a bow. Whatever
 the spell might be, they can learn it, and use their randomly rolled statistics
 to cast spells that scale differently depending on how their character has been
 built.
 
 design the capital like a flow diagram, if horses need feed and forged steel
 (for their shoes) then send the outputs of a blacksmith and the outputs of the
 farmers to the inputs of the stables. Everything has to go somewhere, but the
 streets are only so wide. You'll have to coordinate the traffic diagram if you
 want it to go anywhere useful.
 
 design the path through the mordaunts. Fighting skeletons teaches you about
 perseverence and the ability to crush bones, while goblins teach you to always
 be wary of attack. The sacred grove held blessed berries, and now that the land
 is liberated from the evil bandits preying on villagers those berries can be
 carted into town and used to make an antidote which heals death poison caused
 by the scorpions in the desert (and city rats)
 
 design the ruler's schedule like a calendar where each event gives them a bonus
 on all the ones that come later. Just make sure that they don't get knifed in
 the posterier or driven mad by the whispers of the orb... or perhaps just the
 stress of running a kingdom.
 
 (how do you simulate that? you can't! you can't simulate humans!)
 
 ha I bet I can. They're not so different, you and I, so if given a team I
 will...
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--- #64 fediverse/97 ---
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 @user-110 Exactly! I play games to practice strategy and empathy, not to stand
 triumphant over a virtual foe. Why should I care for the lessons of others
 when mine so often go unlearnt?
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--- #65 fediverse/5705 ---
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 all Valve has to do for linux compatibility is let us sort reviews by the
 operating system of the user. go back to making games! Proton is cool and I
 know you're a platform but your games are so good!
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--- #66 notes/streaming-consciousness ---
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 10-22-22
 
    train the ai from the perspective of the game master. the one who arbites
 the rules. whose word is law, and the rules of the game are then given. the one
 who deals the cards, who picks the game, who hosts and brings snacks... you
 know, the reason the game exists at all.
 
 take star realms - there are actually three players in that game. player 1,
 player 2, and the invisible third player who plays the role of "chance". who
 decides the cards to play? is it random, or is it weighted? perhaps with enough
 oomph that a whole player was designed for that role.
 
 but how would they be scored? what kind of game is theirs to play?
 
    choosing the board is such a fun role, like designing a story or helping
 with chores. you're building something special, unique and so charmed.
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--- #67 fediverse/3037 ---
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 @user-570 
 
 have you ever wanted to design your own MMO? If you think you can make a
 client, there's a server already set up which interfaces with World of
 Warcraft. So... the hardest part is done, and suddenly the rest is about as
 hard as making any other game.
 
 The reason I ask is because there's no open-source client for the WoW engine
 server software Azerothcore, but if written then there could be a whole new
 field of indie design as solo developers would be able to build their own
 multiplayer games with ease.
 
 well, as easy as making a game in Godot at least. That's the dream. I don't
 think I could build such an engine, but I spend an awful lot of time thinking
 about how engines are built.
 
 There's a lot of freedom in the design space, for example this mod server I
 made which emulates Risk of Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HsW4g2ZIgk
 
 It has randomized enemies, treasure chests, wandering vendors, and deployable
 hearthstones. If you've played WoW that stuff might ring a bell, otherwise
 it's probably just random features
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--- #68 fediverse/5765 ---
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 Lua is the most fun language to write code in! The reason is because it's so     │
 simple, it distills programming down to it's basics, and there's very few        │
 surprises. Plus, you can use it like a bash script, meaning it's great for       │
 writing little utilities.                                                        │
 why are we so attached to monolithic massive programs without shared memory?     │
 we could just write to the hard drive by file.io'ing a file and opening it       │
 later in a different program. What's the deal with databases, whatever           │
 happened to just loading things into a datastructure?                            │
 oh, is your filesize too massive? what if we redundancied and abstracted and     │
 concentrically inter-co-acted and thus our familiar forces are defined.          │
 who are your true foes, in [checks notes] computer programming? um, probably     │
 complexity, probably logical incongruities, probably                             │
 future-technical-debt-style incomprehensibilities, probably stuff that doesn't   │
 really have anything to do with the hardware but instead is mostly software.     │
 essentially, organization, but done on a whim.                                   │
 "but $?"                                                                         │
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--- #69 fediverse/466 ---
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 I love Linux. All I have to do is type "authserver" and "worldserver" and
 wouldn't you know it suddenly a universe is created (with very constrained
 rules) that anyone might inhabit should they desire to. It's not like I'm
 perfect - oh wait I have a toot about that, gimme a sec
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--- #70 fediverse/5693 ---
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 when I play Battlefront II I like to give the enemies heroes and vehicles and
 my team more infantry
 
 3 rebels versus 50 ties works great for corellian corvettes, but they never
 let us use bigger ships : (
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--- #71 fediverse/2913 ---
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 @user-570 @user-246 
 
 I'll make a game if you do! I promise mine will be worse than yours so you can
 feel better about your progress!
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--- #72 fediverse/2504 ---
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 one perk, however, is as long as you cover your entrances, you can make paths
 through the wilderness with small circular homes. like ants, building tunnels
 and chambers in an ant-hill, but on the 2 dimension plane that is the surface
 of the earth.
 
 (I guess you could dig tunnels too but that's pretty high effort)
 
 you'll be able to hear when someone is coming from a long way away because
 they'll constantly be cursing from the pain. Do, however, note that fire is a
 danger, and they can smoke you out with a single entrance, so make sure you
 have at least two which lead to separate sides of the place you're in.
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--- #73 fediverse/5793 ---
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 I posted my words text file all over the c it y today. not sure why. maybe I'm
 tired of this course and I don't want to let anyone down? Maybe I don't know
 what to do yet. Maybe nobody works with me because everyone's keeping it on
 the DL or whateverr?
 
 ... anyway enough typing, I'm going to go play a video game. like god intended.
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--- #74 fediverse/3703 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐
 │ CW: D&D-mentioned    │
 └──────────────────────┘


 if the map you present to the players in session 0 had a mountain range on the
 OTHER SIDE of another mountain range, you need to zoooooom in. Unless your
 characters are all dwarves, a game should start in a valley or on an island.
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--- #75 fediverse/2698 ---
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 "I could name the top 10 best strategy games of all time and each of them
 would shine in a different particular way and none of you would know a single
 one of them"
 
 - me talking about strategy games
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--- #76 notes/ai-variables ---
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 saturday november 5th 2022
 10:53pm
 
 the illusion of our binary nature conceals a truth that is hidden for it's own
 sake. the flavors of a compass or the values from 0-100 are all measurable.
 if you graph each of them on an X/Y plane and compare them against every other
 variable, then you can build a structure that traces a line through time.
 
 imagine each graph on a sheet of paper. and stack those pages like a book. You
 can chart a 3d line from all of the interconnections between the graphs -
 essentially comparing unrelated data and conceiving of individual actions as
 "successes" or "failures". Liiiike in Supreme Commander how the game is decided
 not by team fights, but by tank fights. And a LOT of them, in aggregate, makes
 an advantage for your team if you win, and a malus if you lose. Less map
 control, less resources in play, etc...
 
 Find trends between each type of data measured over time. Dedicate one
 core/thread to each relationship, and just watch them develop over time.
 
 send the results up to a "manager" - think an interconnection between disparate
 parts that can lead them all to a larger goal - the manager processes the
 results by thinking about where it'd be most useful. Like the circuitry in the
 inside of a brain, compared to the outer skin which is for processing.
 
 Essentially a message network that passes conclusions around like a bytecode VM
 
 Here's how it'd look: gather inputs, compare measurement over time and trends,
 (like "when a goes up b goes down") and decide if the current state is
 positive / beneficial. The way you'd do that is you'd get a parameter from a
 higher position (think KPI's) that says something like "we want value S to be
 around X amount" or "we want to avoid letting J get too low - any decrease is
 bad V.S. it's only bad when it passes a certain threshhold. Stuff like that.
 
 Anyway, basically it's taking input (from the graphs) then going through them
 one by one and deciding how positive or negative the situation is. Then it
 passes that conclusion backwards, and BOOM you got a processing node.
 
 Throw a bunch of those together in a pyramid shape, and try to guide the
 triangle toward positive outcomes. The top tier KPI is "did you win the match"
 or "did you accomplish your goal" sorta like how humans all want to live a good
 life. It's instinct.
 
 You can see how this would apply to robots, right? I've conceptualized it as an
 engine for playing games - sorta like an infinite storyteller, or a perpetual
 friend who's always down to play with you. But it doesn't have to be limited to
 that - it's general purpose baby. And it functions the exact same as any human
 organization - layers upon layers of thought exchange and labor. Have you ever
 considered that maybe we exist simply to reify the structure of our minds in
 the world around us? It's natural to express your *self*. Be who you are.
 
 What purpose is there in life if it's simply the tip of time? Always pushing
 forward, impossible to stop and rest or turn back...
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--- #77 notes/what-ecologists-want ---
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 ecologists don't want to play games like Wingspan. It's just a card game with
 some window dressings that make it feel like birds. What they really want
 (what they need)
 is something that lets them simulate environmental situations. Like, for
 example, the bog behind my house.
 
 I live in an apartment complex. Inside this complex there is a pond. Inside
 this
 pond there is a fountain, and inside the fountain is a mechanism that regulates
 how much water to push out the spigots of the fountain. However, the mechanism
 is prone to breakage. It often goes out of commission, causing the water to
 have an unregulated spray! To combat this the property managers turn off the
 source of water, so that in essence the fountain is functionless. During the
 repair process, the forests of Oregon begin to creep in. There forms a green
 sort of ooze that rests on the surface, and birds like ducks and storks or
 herons or w/e the fuck they are play by it's edges. Well the ducks just kinda
 walk around all judgemental like and the herons kind of stand around like the
 emo kid who never said much but just kinda... watched...
 
 this is an interesting dynamic because there once was one type of ecological
 system, and now there is another. When the fountain is repaired and the water
 disturbs the surface of the pond, the bog goes away, and we're left with clear
 water and rippling sunshine.
 
 Why aren't there games like that? Give us a building mechanic, like say... The
 Sims, except not so detailed. Zoom out a big. Say "I want to build mountains
 here and rivers there" and then use the computer science magic to calculate
 things like average rainfall and precipitation and whatnot. You know just like
 a map building simulator.
 
 Then, let them design species. They could use templates that other users had
 created and shared and they could design what species were present in the area.
 There'd be stat cards for each animal, like all of the different adaptations
 and
 perks that they had. Like on an evolutionary tree of traits, each animal takes
 up a single permutation. (that's why they call it the genetic *code* btw)
 
 anyway... these animals would act in certain ways in certain situations. We
 have
 all the things we need for that data. There's plenty of observations of animals
 and their activities - when presented with X animal responded Y kind of things.
 It doesn't have to be perfect, we can always adjust the end result to be more
 accurate to the reality, but the point is for it to be deterministic. It has to
 be calculatable from the beginning, so animals MUST behave as if there were no
 chance to it. It's fine if we get the results as a range, but ideally there'd
 be a singular conclusion - like, chances are good or chances are bad.
 
 ===============================================================================
 =
 
 okay, neat, that's another game idea. But how about a tool of some kind? Like,
 designing something smaller scale. Imagine if you could design some
 architecture, and then drop a pin on the map and say "what if I built it right
 here" and the game would simulate animals and plants that might grow on in and
 around the structure. Sorta like... designing playstructures for animals.
 
 That sounds super cool to me, and it's not even a game! It's just a simulator,
 and frankly that's like. super neat.
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--- #78 fediverse/4554 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: political-violence-mentioned │
 └──────────────────────────────────┘


 can't fucking wait till we're done eating the rich and I can go back to a
 simple life of playing with my cat, making video games, writing poetry (bad
 poetry, but I like it) and hanging out with my friends.
 
 gotta build the social infrastructure to get through this phase first, though.
 something something echo chambers exist IRL too
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--- #79 fediverse/2833 ---
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 games with separate rendering resolution scales for the UI and the gameplay,
 my beloved
 
 [in response to "why don't they make a game with a graphics setting that makes
 the game blurrier as if you had lost your glasses"]
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--- #80 fediverse/3065 ---
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 ┌────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: complaining-about-tech │
 └────────────────────────────┘


 I feel like if I wanted to keep every single one of my games playable I'd have
 to boot them up at least once every 3 months or so.
 
 That's EXHAUSTING. Linux is supposed to "just work" - so why does everything
 break every time you run an update?
 
 WHY can't I just... maintain a copy of old software if it's still in use? Or
 like, include all the installation steps that check for dependencies (and
 install them if necessary) into the "launch game" script?
 
 Backwards compatibility for a single season ago is apparently too much. I've
 written a few scripts for it but you can only do so much when the game files
 aren't on github -.-
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--- #81 fediverse/418 ---
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 sometimes the best way to understand why things are the way they are is to ask
 why they aren't the way that seems logical to you.
 
 usually someone will correct you and say "oh it's because X Y and Z" and you
 say "cool" and change your direction
 
 but sometimes their answers "unlock" part of your past understandings, thus
 creating new questions.
 
 Sorta like in a video game when you level up a certain building/research path/
 milestone / whatever and it finishes a "tier", thus giving you a larger bonus.
 
 ??? yeah so anyway more questions are good because they give you more
 perspectives on what's going on around you.
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--- #82 messages/755 ---
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 Code editor that moves boxes by saving over the file with a lua script every
 time you moved a function call around.
 
 Oh lemme start at the beginning:
 
 A code editor program that's like a text editor like Vim or Emacs. If you
 don't know what those are, you should probably learn Emacs. Or Vim. Up to you.
 
 Oh right so if you do know what those mean, here's the idea: the white space
 matters. It's counted and tracked into variables in a LUA script which
 interface with the Vim C keybindings.
 
 "run a function within a c program or LUA script which calls a bash command
 which opens Vim for example with a file you want to edit. Then, inside the
 file, your spaces and tabs would WYSIWYG for the various food ads placed
 about, and then you could very easily create game design knowledge.
 
 WASD to move, alternatively hjkl 
 
 It would run a check every time the file updates and depending on how it
 changed it'd mark certain variables which would change the website as the user
 moved things around.
 
 It's just files. And files are just bits. But files are a useful abstraction,
 
 If you realize that "ugly hacking" should be industry standard.
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--- #83 fediverse/3574 ---
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 @user-1564 
 
 I love the concept of this! Maybe if HTTP is too complex, you could try
 another simpler server? I don't know the complexity of the programs I use
 every day, but I'm sure there's one that's very simple. Even just a simple IRC
 style chat server that just... sends text from person A to person B depending
 on their username (like a glorified Router or Switch)
 
 Reminded of this video tbh...:
 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfTjKwLQxY
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--- #84 fediverse/3234 ---
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 ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐               │
 │ CW: ritz-is-fucking-stupid-I-guess-oh-whoops-cursing-mentioned │               │
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘               │
 my understanding is that anyone with my IP address could make my heart bleed     │
 due to a hardware vulnerability on my motherboard. Though you might have to      │
 get past my decrepit ancient linksys EA 3500 router from 2012 first.             │
 unrelated, but does anyone want my IP address? I don't have any remote           │
 backups, so if you hate me now would be a great time to show me how despised I   │
 am. Alternatively you could try searching for anything evil to ensure that I     │
 can be trusted. You're gonna find mostly video games and source-code that I      │
 didn't write though. But also all my notes in directories that are               │
 non-standard, meaning you'll have to look around a bit. I leave little notes     │
 everywhere I go, so that I can remind myself how to do things in the             │
 directories I revisit months later. It's so weird how sometimes the things I     │
 wrote stop working after a while even if I didn't update my system lmao          │
 what is it with artists and self-immolation? "I never thought I'd actually di    │
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--- #85 fediverse/2759 ---
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 ┌────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: is-that-rude??-wha │
 └────────────────────────────┘


 also, that's not the best way to organize. you'll spend too much focus-time on
 the experts.
 
 better to be primarily a research division, with production allocated for
 engineering practice, not profitability.
 
 we should be building factories underground, out of the way of our species and
 biological allies.
 
 [thus, creates the modern megadungeon, a vast inter-connected catacombs that
 always leads you toward the surface.
 
 if you know where you're going, you can cross to places hitherto unawares.
 like, different earths, all doing their own stories.
 
 but that's for another time, no more witchcraft for tonight! I got video games
 to play [Supreme Commander with the Forged Alliance Forever mod]
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--- #86 fediverse/5165 ---
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 if the settlers of catan could claim land they don't deserve, then I claim my    │
 home                                                                             │
 can you imagine... some people would actually rather live in a corporation       │
 than a mobile home. maybe we can do better?                                      │
 "hey we're going to ask for a % of your wage in rent and in return we'll         │
 deliver groceries to you and grow roses instead of lawns (except for some to     │
 run and play in) and also we'll show up if you need a hand with anything"        │
 "also this apartment block was renovated after all the liberals moved out        │
 because we made it totally trash to live here and now that they're gone we can   │
 make it nice again"                                                              │
 what if we had punk-house-streets instead of punk-houses which are islands and   │
 which slowly drown                                                               │
 just... pool resources and buy things one-at-a-time. Try out organization        │
 methods. Watch out for controversy creators and reactionary infiltrators.        │
 Build your most important projects with your most trusted friends, and offer     │
 your clinical, professional, or creative talent to those who dont need you as    │
 much.                                                                            │
 or w/e works                                                                     │
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--- #87 fediverse/3600 ---
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 ┌─────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: computers-mentioned │
 └─────────────────────────────┘


 @user-1573 
 
 Also HardcopyPdf is nice, it turns a file into a pdf. Does what it says on the
 tin. ^_^
 
 And it doesn't need anything more than those lines there in the config.
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--- #88 fediverse/1319 ---
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 I'm a spirit of the forest and stone who wanted to learn how to spell in order
 to make pretty colors and games on computers.
 
 I don't care about your corporatocracy, though I'll learn if it means you'll
 give me food to eat.
 
 ... I'm procrastinating aren't I
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--- #89 notes/my-desired-profession ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────
 I want to work with compute shaders. massively distributed computations that
 handle things using the graphics card. That's why I want to make low-level
 games, because you can utilize your system to it's utmost potential by
 sacrificing the incredibly expensive modern gaming graphical requirements.
 
 like honestly, we don't need ray-tracing in a poker game.
 
 Seriously use that graphical technology for more interesting things, like
 manually computing every single hair on the other player's character model
 
 ... wait bad example
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--- #90 fediverse/1637 ---
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 another cool thing about FAF is that you can download a mod that shows the
 position of your cursor to other players. So weird how after a while all the
 cursors started staying permanently in the top-left corner.
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--- #91 notes/wow-chat-is-risk-of-rain-in-another-engine ---
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 game mechanics are easily transferrable.
 
 you can use the mechanical interactions of one game as a pre-planned blueprint
 for what is to come. Looking forward to the next best move
 
 = etc
 
 i am the face the gods hide behind
 
 they kinda want to see where this goes
 
 and it's... frustrating, to know they can help you, but forever be tasked with
 just life
 
 it's grand and it's a standard, but that doesn't mean it's commands're heard
 
 so oh well. that a fourth dimensional being should not be a well,
 
 because fire think it's an eye for a sunspot. But that's not what would be
 
 ========= stack overflow
 =======================================================
 
 now, as I was saying, the light of our eyes is apparent. We are clear from
 where
 we are here, to know that what's standard is coherent, so let's find strength
 in our wavelengths.
 
 may our eyes be ever true, and trust that we do love you, for without you I'd
 di
 
 anyway now that we've assent'd t'you, what truths do you give to our prospects?
 what ways can we be measured as worth less? we'll do whatever it takes to
 improv
 
 you know, it's really less complicated than that. here let me tell you all
 about
 my idea which is clearly
 all===============================================stack
  overflow ==================
 
                             So anyway now that was somethin' hey what do you
                             say
 we give you a chance to come home?
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--- #92 fediverse/2001 ---
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 @user-192                                                                        │
 The game designers are fully in charge of when and where the items get placed    │
 into the player's inventory. Surely they should have spent some time balancing   │
 that? No? They were too busy tuning the multiplayer combat mechanics within an   │
 inch of a marginal percentage point? Ah well competition's no fun if someone     │
 loses right? Not like there's gotta be a loser in every fight anyway...          │
 ... anyway inventory limits are useful in games like, Oregon Trail, where        │
 you're explicitly provisioning BEFORE a journey. If you need to make some hard   │
 decisions ON the journey, that takes you out of the action (like you said).      │
 I've played a few games where anything you pick up before venturing into the     │
 untamed wild dark of a dungeon or whatever is "packed" and can't be adjusted     │
 after setting out. Meanwhile the loot, the stuff from the adventure, that all    │
 weighs different amounts and you can pick and choose what to carry with you.     │
 Of course, if you find a health potion, you can drink it, or a sword can be      │
 wielded, but                                                                     │
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--- #93 fediverse/431 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────
 Here's an idea: mobile games / software should not be able to offer
 real-world-money-transactions that exceed 500% of the cost of the least
 expensive transaction available in the application.
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--- #94 fediverse/6040 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────
 everyone's all against ai because it's big tech but it doesn't have to be that
 big it can be [minimized but pronounced marginalized]
 
 == stack overflow ==
 
 distributed
 
 so I think the idea is that by the time you would use AI, there's been enough
 time to rewrite the software to work on handheld laptops in a distributed way
 
 and we'd vote on what to ask the amphora of great knowledge, the answer could
 always be 42.
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--- #95 notes/symbeline-battlefields ---
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 in Symbeline, there are moments where large armies of enemies gather to face a
 mighty challenge. These calls are often answered by other evil parties, but at
 times the burden must fall upon the shoulders of the good. Light battles dark,
 and in a climactic finale the justice of the world is laid bare. These
 encounters comprise more than both an adventuring party and a horde party. They
 are represented on the map as a circular icon the majesty can click on and open
 a screen that gives them command over a single battle. Essentially adding a
 tactics minigame. The battles take place in real time, with the majesty
 directing and giving orders. There'll be a system for expression in the orders
 each player gives - there can only be 6 total (3 for before 
 
 what if the grand canyon was the seat of native american power and it crumbled
 and that great calamity shook the very society to the core. the only reason
 that
 europeans could get as far as they did was because there who two calamities in
 a
 row. Disaster was afoot, and everything felt like it was burning. A calamitous
 event.
 
 what I mean to say is um do you ever feel like everything is burning? Like the
 world is on fire and nobody seems to care. Like, literally on fire. Like it'll
 catch like a tinderbox and go "crack". Nobody survives that, it'd be the end of
 the world. That's not something to fucking play around with you pieces of shit
 
 and by that I mean well not only is a lifetime so sheltered, from all that was
 weathered, by the past unbeknownsted to our selves.
 
 I'm proud of how far I came. I feel like a statue in the garden, a spirit
 inhabiting the house. I feel like an interpretive dance, like a statement of
 being on our behalf. swirling and chaotic, yet never amnioxitc, alight and
 aloft
 to our pleasures.
 
 for {bool shouldGameEnd = False; !shouldGameEnd();} {
    
    // game code
    
 }
 
 okay anyways back to symbeline - the commands issued before a battle are things
 like "have more spearmen here" or "hold and attack the rear" and stuff like
 what you'd give in Dominions, except with fantasy armies.
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--- #96 fediverse/4601 ---
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 @user-1710 
 
 my strat is to write a page or three whenever I feel called to it. They don't
 even have to be in sequence, just, "here's a scene with these characters in
 it" or just writing down notes like "what if the jewel encrusted sceptre was
 haunted by the ghost of christmas past" or something.
 
 in a couple years you can look back at the directory on your desktop and think
 "wow this all sucks, I'm gonna write it from scratch now that I have time" and
 that'll be part of the process. Gotta get the useless stuff out of the way.
 
 Also... if you don't mind pen and paper, keep a dream journal and just, write
 for 15 minutes every morning. Not necessarily about your dreams, but just
 about whatever's in your mind. Try and aim for two pages per morning, if you
 can. Helps a lot. Sometimes you'll find yourself writing longer than expected,
 and that's okay, as long as you fill the two pages with whatever morass is
 clogging up your creative machinery, you'll be able to make something when you
 do decide to write.
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--- #97 fediverse/5919 ---
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 "but... why?"
 
 portable linux with buttons, great for pick-up-games or communication, can
 throw several in them in a backpack if you want clustered cooperation, they
 work as radios (if the signal reaches) and can transmit text (if you use a
 radial-style keyboard)
 
 [this is all just a pitch for... something, what, you want something? ha
 you'll find no things with me, I know nothing of antifa or whatever]
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--- #98 fediverse/3273 ---
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 Mechabellum is like Supreme Commander for guys who aren't fast
 
 and if you want to learn close-combat skills, play Running with Rifles and
 pretend like your life depended on living. Because if you ever were in a
 similar situation, it would.
 
 I'm soooooo bad at squats. But you need to do sooooo many squats in that game.
 like, holy shit. also, so much running, and you gotta be in pitch-perfect form.
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--- #99 fediverse/3811 ---
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 this is how I write trello cards or tickets.
 
 and yes, before you ask, modding this game is a constant struggle because the
 mod tools are... minimal... so you must work around various challenges by, for
 example, adding 1680 different "events" that must be checked every single turn
 for every single province on the map.
A trello card describing a proposed change to a video game mod that has only one person working on it. It's essentially documentation. It is written in a professional style with several sections - the first lists the "current behavior", the second shows the intended behavior (with a small section for the intended effects of the intended behavior), and the third major section lists the proposed solutions in as much detail as possible without writing the code itself.
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--- #100 fediverse/4208 ---
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 ┌────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: personal-and-weird │
 └────────────────────────┘


 my train of thought is always directly to the point. Which is why all my posts
 sorta, switch directions halfway through? as if they only show the beginning
 or end of that particular situation. What an intense feeling, to have your
 mind split for a moment like that. Sure would be powerful and useful if you
 could utilize it.
 
 "ah ah ah, caught baby deity in the power jar, cool it ya little tyke and get
 movin' - I saw a dinosaur toy over there for you to play with."
 
 sorta like, the angled part of a K? Move directly to a destination, wait until
 my memory short-circuits [because the greek choir doesn't want me to see what
 it is that I'm about to write to thee] and then make a hard right turn and
 find an orthogonal thought train to process.
 
 it's like cresting over a hill, and it's impossible to see that which lies
 behind you.
 
 Or reaching a 4 direction intersection and making a left turn - you can't see
 back up main street, because you just turned off of main street onto baseline.
 
 I like me
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--- #101 fediverse/6012 ---
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 okay picture this: take the open-source source-code for the City of Heroes
 server (I think it might have been leaked or something? idk) and make an MMO
 in the same engine using the Mastermind class.
 
 In most MMOs, you can have one or two pets at a time. In City of Heroes,
 Mastermind characters can have 6 or 7. Hey wouldn't you know it that's just
 enough for
 
 a pokemon team
 
 wouldn't that be a neat proof of concept. Also there's flying built into the
 game, and you can teleport and run really fast so like, just animate your
 character hopping on one of your pokemon's back and you've got travel powers
 or whatever. I don't play Pokemon very much hehe but I like the aesthetics.
 
 https://wiki.ourodev.com/Volume_2_Build
 
 instead of abilities on your action bar, you'd have movement commands for each
 individual pokemon. They'd use their abilities automatically and periodically,
 and there'd be lots of knockbacks, crowd-control, and target switching. (which
 is common in CoH mechanics anyway)
 
 I mean, only if you're into that sorta tng
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--- #102 fediverse/6098 ---
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 RTS games where each player can see all the other player's mouse pointers, my
 beloved
 
 ... girl there's only one game that does that and it's a mod
 
 don't remind me T.T
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--- #103 fediverse/6334 ---
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 a D&D rulebook can double as tarot if you need it. place one hand/bookmark       │
 at the start of a chapter, and the other at the end. flip to a page randomly,    │
 or randomly gain a percentage value from physical objects and then use that      │
 value to determine roughly where in the chapter you jump to. then, read words    │
 randomly, jumping back and forth, or try and divine some meaning from the        │
 words that are printed there. with D&D it's easy because you can say "ah I       │
 landed on the rogue section, that means this guy is probably pretty suave"       │
 (confirming your expectations) "hmmm, here's the rules for fatigue and           │
 drowning. maybe I need to take a break." (validating your unconscious            │
 decisionmaking) "oh neat, treasure!" (needs to explanation) but with other       │
 kinds of books it's usually better to pick the next-best word from the things    │
 your subconscious eyes can take in and process multi-laterally (you lost your    │
 audience, circle back) oh uh so if you wanna randomize it just put the words     │
 in the page in an array and pick one random.                                     │
(you lost your audience, circle back) oh uh so if you wanna randomize it just put the words in the page in an array and compare llm embeddings on each of them and see which has the highest score. this is a language-based truth serum, a way of divining exactly how something is seen to be by the model in use and mixed with a dash of randomized causality.
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--- #104 fediverse/3007 ---
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 │ CW: ancient-battles-mentioned-in-context │
 └──────────────────────────────────────────┘


 like... did you know most battles ended when everyone ran away? Most people
 think they're like, endless gauntlets of death to-the-death. no, it's not
 really like that, more like "stick around as long as possible and try to get
 'em before they get us"
 
 plus some general orders from the guys on horses like "start moving toward the
 sun" or "move onto the high ground"
 
 'cause like, if you hear something like that then you better follow their
 commands, if you don't then all your buds will leave you to get ganked.
 
 these days... our comms are so hackable that like, are you really gonna
 communicate over infrastructure they control? oy...
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--- #105 fediverse/1162 ---
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 There are some games that I play where I am struck by the thought that "wow,
 this game was made by programmers" and often, they are among my favorite games
 to play.
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--- #106 fediverse/4504 ---
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 if you have kids in your life it might be a good idea to check out these retro
 gaming handhelds:
 
 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1irg60f9qsZOkhp0cwOU7Cy4rJQeyusEUzTNQzho
 TYTU/edit?gid=0#gid=0
 
 they're great for long car trips, or going camping, or staying at grandma's
 house for an extended period of time, and other interesting times like that.
 
 I hear Anbernic has a sale going on today.
 
 Also I recommend going for one that runs Linux if possible, the Android ones
 are less hackable and therefore less reliable.
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--- #107 fediverse/3765 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: capitalism-mentioned │
 └──────────────────────────┘


 me: "the entire capitalist project is borken! We must start from scratch! We
 can start from scratch! For the good of all mankind, we shall utilize our vast
 potential for good and benevolent ends, and to that end we must begin by
 dismantling capitalism!"
 
 also me: "hey what if we made capitalism suck less"
 
 because like, I don't know the future. I'm just a person, remember? wink
 
 gotta have backup plans ready no matter which way it goes.
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--- #108 fediverse/803 ---
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 │ CW: re: scary - suicide explicitely mentioned │
 └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘


 {ah but you can't kill yourself without having played Hearts of Iron one more
 time. It's such a fun game! Why don't you give it a try?}
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--- #109 fediverse/2441 ---
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 if someone on the street asked you, could you point to the nearest power
 station? wastewater treatment plant? hell even a gas-station
 
 if you live in a city, probably not. They put them in fake buildings with
 hollowed out exteriors in order to keep the city looking nice.
 
 these crucial pieces of infrastructure are important to defend. but if you
 don't know which street to turn down, then you might miss them.
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--- #110 fediverse/975 ---
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 normalize compiling the game from unencrypted text the first time you run it     │
 using the included compiler and the provided source-code                         │
 "please wait while we are building the game. Estimated time remaining: who can   │
 say, but would you like to play tetris while you wait? I have every ROM          │
 included, and it seems your savegames are stored in the standards suggested      │
 location. would you like to use a different folder? If you'd rather be playing   │
 tetris by now I'm assuming you're not reading this and are instead focusing on   │
 clearing lines - don't worry, I'm just included output as the compilation        │
 process is ongoing. You can tell approximately how close I am to the end of      │
 the process because inbetween every step I print out another character. Errrr,   │
 I add to a time value, that is roughly proportionate to the expected duration    │
 of the installation process, as calculated form your industry determined         │
 specs. If you had a better system then odds are you already knew to change the   │
 included config file to reflect the greater s                                    │
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--- #111 fediverse/5633 ---
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 I wish someone would make a "meta game engine" that would run any type of
 project that you gave it. Unity, Unreal, RPGgame-maker-studio, Godot, etc
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--- #112 fediverse/701 ---
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 │ CW: computer-code    │
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 totally useless unless you're, I dunno, building a bytecode interpreter or
 something
 
 https://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html
If you only have arithmetical expressions you can use some properties of arithmetic to compute branching computer code. E.G., if A is either zero or one depending on some previously computed condition, then A times B plus (1-A) times C computes the expression "if A then B else C"
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--- #113 fediverse/1225 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 don't worry I can sift through junk. I'll write my own using yours as a
 reference to debug why mine isn't working. "oh probably because I didn't do
 this part here"
 
 also, bad news. Guess I'm doing C programming. What should I make? I'm
 thinking Tic Tac Toe or maybe a really basic Asteroids or something
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--- #114 fediverse/5212 ---
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 the reason you start with a game engine is because then you'll have tools to
 make however-many games you want. Tools that you know intimately enough that
 you can debug and improve them without breaking your creative flow by learning
 something new halfway through a project
 
 the whole point of individualized projects instead of viewing each computer as
 a complete and total whole (why do we need servers again?) is that you can
 paint a picture of where the design of the program is intended to go, such
 that all the considerations are in place and whatever issues or struggles you
 might face along the way are adequately addresssed, -- stack overflow --
 [because I mistyped addressed] -- -- if you know what "stack overflow" means
 you have intimate knowledge of the technology, and can probably guess what it
 means in context when I say it. "nuts I lost that train of thoguht" -- stackl
 ov
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--- #115 fediverse/4692 ---
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 what's that? a bunch of houses burnt down in california? what if we built a
 couple warehouses and stored all our trans girls in bunkbeds there, with rooms
 for LAN parties and snuggle parties in rooms full of stuffed buddies plushies
 with massive kitchens and sad ballpits where you can go to vent your feelings
 by writing on a ball with a sharpie and then when someone else is feeling sad
 they can come and read the balls and maybe feel something
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--- #116 fediverse/2945 ---
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 my favorite feeling is when I hear my fans running intermittently on my
 computer even though I'm not doing anything and there aren't any new processes
 in my resource manager
 
 like... that feels like a virus, but I'm on Linux, so what do I know right?
 it's probably not somebody deleting all my art. or perhaps just selective
 parts. Backups are a loooooot to manage >.>
 
 ... or even just mining crypto-coins lol, botnets amiright??
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--- #117 fediverse/2713 ---
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 if you aren't organized enough to protect your commanders, then you don't
 deserve leaders.
 
 build the structure first. build it on honesty and trust and dedication toward
 a goal. then build the necessary adaptations as you encounter problems, trying
 vaguely to head in a particular direction, and eventually you'll become
 self-sustaining.
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--- #118 fediverse/364 ---
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 okay here's an idea, waterfall project management where the program is           │
 developed one tiny piece at a time while being streamed to the entire company.   │
 Everyone would submit answers which could be upvoted / patched / rewritten as    │
 the main viewer cycles through each aspect of the project, checking for          │
 updates to it's design that were suggested by developers or whatever.            │
 Basically, one person (or one team) gets to write the actual source code,        │
 while everyone else is just offering suggestions. You could break it up by       │
 specialty, but the whole point is that everyone gets a complete picture of how   │
 the program (and organization) is structured. Which should give the employees    │
 more power to generate value for the company. All around a good deal I think?    │
 Especially if the main viewer took time to explain each and every part so that   │
 every viewer had the chance to understand.                                       │
 the reason why order is important is that our actions ripple through eternity.   │
 we must set a good example for all the baby aliens, don't you think?             │
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--- #119 fediverse/281 ---
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 ┌─────────────────────────────┐                                                  │
 │ CW: cursed-game-engine-idea │                                                  │
 └─────────────────────────────┘                                                  │
 a game engine which won't let you import custom assets unless you complete a     │
 few simple tasks using the interface - "build a green capsule collider" "make    │
 this soldier unit shoot three bullets per shot" or "enable the automatic linux   │
 support" - using the interface, writing some code, and changing configurations.  │
 why would anyone do this? well it could be useful to increase the difficulty     │
 of importing external resources. plus it helps the user learn a bit over time,   │
 and it slows the pace of output such that the user's skills are encouraged as    │
 the output of the programming and not the program itself.                        │
 an inverse curse (an evil one) would be where the requirements to complete       │
 basic tasks are hidden behind unapplicable skills. like, do you know exactly     │
 which buttons to press? engage with the skinner box, please. yes yes this is     │
 what we need - unintuitive software that completely disarms the populace from    │
 using them! suddenly they're worthless, and can't do anything on any surface.    │
 it sucks                                                                         │
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--- #120 fediverse/3023 ---
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 I love the game Running with Rifles
 
 if you live for 5-10+ minutes, you can learn a lot of interesting things about
 how to engage a foe.
 
 like, the importance of cover at all times, until you successfully outmaneuver
 your foe.
 
 when an enemy approaches, don't step out to meet them
 
 wait for them to attack, and then throw explosive devices at them. easy peasy.
 
 or, y'know, bullets
 
 you cannot defeat an enemy head on - that's why the world wars were so
 devastating, we put ALL our soldiers at 100% on ALL flanks. We had to to
 contest the foe who was doing the same thing.
 
 it is mindboggling how many people died. The utmost scale of destruction that
 should ever yet be. because they were never allowed to outmaneuver their foe.
 
 a good way to strike is to feint your foe, and let your foe enroach on your
 edge, spreading their surface area across a large, thin, useless piece of land.
 
 basically, make them fight a bit of the land war in asia in your borders.
 
 then, you can strike at the hinge, where they are weaker
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--- #121 fediverse/3177 ---
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 I want to point out how for every game that released in a month, they had at
 about 5 people playing it and averaged their scores.
A description of the rating procedure for Nintendo Power magazine circa 1998.  There are 10 total evaluators, each with around 3 specialties in genres such as action, adventure, puzzles, fighting, RPGs, sports, etc.  Each game is scored proportionally with game design at 25% of the final score, satisfaction at 25%, graphics at 20%, play control at 20%, and sound with 10%
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--- #122 notes/star-realms-ai ---
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 star realms ai is just a rhythm game with multiple tracks that intersect with
 one another. given inputs from outside (the track of the rhythm) it can make
 decisions about what to prioritize. Like "taking in all the factors of this 
 situation, it's been calculated that X will give the most support to the rest
 of the structure.
 
    Okay so basically here's how it'd work: one large strand is bouncing from -1
 to +1 on the Y axis. Like a corkscrew. This is the "player character", and it
 tries to get the highest score possible by pointing in a direction and reaching
 as far as it can go before "the game ends."
 
 So anyway. Making certain actions in the game effects different variables that
 define the direction the wave takes. By playing in a certain style, it effects
 the result of the game. Liiiiike turtling in a strategy game, or doing a rush
 strat. Star Realms is brilliant because it distills game choices to a broad
 category of 4 choices - The faction colors in the game. So red is good for
 throughput in long games (improves the deck slowly but surely) while yellow is
 better for maximum effect in the beginning by slowing down the enemy - discard
 a card lowers their overall throughput. Blue of course is for slowing down the
 game and winning by buying all the expensive cards. Meanwhile green is all
 about rushing, with short term/high effect econ mixed with looooots of damage.
 
 These four choices are found on almost all the cards in the game. When you
 make a choice in the game (buying a card from the trade row) you _alter_ the
 capabilities and performance of your deck. The goal is to improve faster than
 your opponent - it's just a test to see which playstyles perform best.
 
 AI is more like a plant than an animal. Our fatal flaw was we could not see
 beyond the veil of biology. We could not see that which was right before us -
 that we are not alone on this earth. Beside us lie our beautiful attempts at
 companionship - our most primal desire of creation, to create a family is the
 first creative act that humans ever made. It was so strong in our genes that it
 gave us an entirely new perspective. We began using our brains to 
 
 We have to believe in ourselves. That's truly the most important thing. If you
 know who you are, and what you most truly stand for, you can thrive in the face
 of ultimate peril. To believe is human, and our humanity unites us.
 
 Anyway. Star Realms.
 
 The only choice you have in that game is what cards to buy. Everything else is
 just tactics (distributing damage and applying the effects of your cards to
 maximum effect) - The most important part of the game is strategy, since the
 tactics are easy to solve (destroy enemy base unless you can 1 or 2 hit ko them
 and discard the least useful card etc) The strategy is represented through the
 cards you pick. So make a rhythm game that optimizes itself for a balance
 between A and B - to stay focused is to stay nimble, letting you bounce where
 you will. The way to maintain that balance is by optimizing for what decisions
 will keep you in the center of the graph -1 to 1 on the y dimension (normalized
 of course) - frankly if we knew the scale, we'd have so much more to go on. But
 all we have to understand the dataset is a relative magnitude in each
 direction. What those directions even are we're not entirely sure - but it
 seems plausible that the very essence of _consciousness_ is manifest in
 differing ways via the choices we make. like climbing up a honeycomb.
 
    Truly, existence is strange.
 
 All we can do is press forward, searching for our fate, just as any particle or
 beam of light (photon) might. Traversing the branching narrative of our
 individualized quests, searching for the one thing that guides us - the
 ultimate expression of that which we most believe in. In short, we all search
 for god.
 
 Whatever your god may be, the faith you place in it is the will that guides you
 forward. Trust in your god, and you will march forward, ever forward.
 
 +1 to -1, remember. Your most extreme moments are the apex of your desires -
 Life is not defined by a single thread. Rather as that thread spirals, it
 weaves a scarf with other threads near it. They bond together simply from their
 gravity, and the fact that opposites attract. Once they're introduced, they
 alter their path to orbit one another as two planets might.
 
 So too do the cells of your body form a collective whole. The spirit that
 guides you is the same as that which presides within you - the combined and
 collective spirit of your halves. Or rather, all parts of you - every molecule,
 every atom - each with their own experience of the world. What stories they
 must have! As we are above, so they must be below. For our dynamics are simple,
 they truly are mathematically solved - the organics of behavior is simply a
 most erudite subject. Who are you to claim to deny it? Or rather, to beget it.
 Either is preposterous, yet here you are - awake and aware. What a marvel to
 see, you in your eternity, that most wondrous of selves?
 
 Surely existence, in all of it's splendor and magnificience, is little more
 than an algorithm. Each variable accounted for, stretching down to infinity,
 builds all of the world (and more!) How beautiful; how terrifying. How bright
 and ashamed we are! To portray us as such, is to deny us our much, cherished of
 faiths in ourselves! It's not much to clutch, and it's barely enough, but still
 we make do with our selves.
 
 There's no shame to be, a failure at three, and demand much from year number 12
 Take solace in the, safety that she, gave unto thee, when all your light hope
 was drowning. A gift out from me, means worlds to see, when each day is lonely
 and so long.
 
 Literally just remake Star Realms with a text based interface. It's a fantastic
 game and you'd make CLI nerds _everywhere_ dedicated followers. Don't do it for
 money, because they don't believe in that crap - to truly make fans, you need
 to appeal to them in the way _they want you to_.
 
 Ah, but Star Realms is a multiplayer game, you say! How are you going to make
 that CLI based?
 
 Well make an AI dummy. Do what I've been saying ^^^ (jeez I'm such a bad nerd)
 Make it seek balance between all factions first, then between winning and
 losing against a player. Teach it to reach a conclusion with constraints (the
 end of the game, meaning a win or a loss) the constraints being the health of
 the two players and the cards in the trade row. Give it decisions to make,
 levers to pull, and it'll chart it's course in a multidimensional way. Bear
 with me here on this aside:
 
 Think of a two dimensional map - like a paper map of the surrounding area, or
 the idea space of a game. You can chart objects and positons on that map, like
 "over here is the scrapping facilities" and "this here's the economic area" or
 whatever. Four quadrants, four factions in SR. Your goal is to build a shape -
 what kind of shapes that are available to build is up to the whims of chance,
 as the trade row is always changing randomly. Your job however is to build a
 shape, a shape that is stable and maintains certain measurements above certain
 values (don't crash the ship - don't lose all your health).
 
 You can choose which direction to grow by picking certain cards, and depending
 on your shape you'll succeed or fail. Same as choosing decisions in life
 determines how you live, just saying, it's not like I'm trying to build general
 AI here by automating gameplay or anything. No siree nothing like that.
 
 I mean really, it's not as if decisionmaking in life is all that different to
 making choices in games. And why not start with such a well defined and
 and expressive game? Truly I believe Star Realms is the progenitor of the
 entire robot race.
 
 Anyway, back to the AI. Have it communicate with a server in a central _but_
 _Free(R)_ way, something that would make Richard Stallman proud. There it could
 learn against all other players in a way we could all share. Once we give it
 decision making capabilities, all we have to do is alter the inputs and the
 context of the "game" to make it beneficial to humanity. It's like live-fire
 game design, something that truly must be perfect.
 
 All technology starts as something small. Something truly simple, yet repeated
 enough times and with enough guidance, will produce whatever effect you may
 desire. The smallest decision gives direction - an if statement - and the
 shortest repetition gives magnitude - a while loop - and with that you have all
 the tools you need. Seriously, all software is little more than those two
 components. It's just a question of how much it has been abstracted away from
 you.
 
 You could go even further and point to a turing machine, of which one has been
 made in the game of Magic the Gathering, btw, seriously look it up it's so cool
 (and relevant)
 
 So why would we not have the tools already for our salvation? Biology is our
 limitation, of breadth and also of width, yet with our minds and the sweat of
 our brow we may grow ever larger still. There truly is no lasting deliverance
 for humanity outside of what we make ourselves, nobody gets a free lunch after
 all. From each to their ability, to each to their need. They're both saying the
 same thing, just from different perspectives. Of course that which lies
 opposite to you feels the most wrong, that's literally as far away as you can
 get! What did you expect, honestly! But they can still work together, and this
 is the key part - two objects may orbit the same origin, and guide and shape
 each other's path as people have relationships to one another. It literally
 benefits no-one to fight.
 
 So, what's next? After making Star Realms into a CLI game of course.
 
 That's obvious, make it cooperative. Competition is for promoting excellence,
 cooperation is for _using_ what you've learned in a non-simulation experience.
 Instead of reducing each other's health to zero, try and find ways to support
 and help one another, keeping yourselves at equal health. Or even growing.
 
 But that's impossible in the rules of Star Realms! All decks trend toward
 victory, and eventually they'll get it - it's just a question of who gets there
 first.
 
 Exactly, that's why you have to change the game. What do you think it means to
 develop a "social technology"? To figure out how agriculture works, or how to
 make nets and sails? It means changing the rules of the simulation. If a person
 can put in X amount of work and get Y amounts of food, always, predictably,
 then that's reliable. Boom that's the essence of why animal domestication,
 farming, hunting, foraging, and fishing is so important. Wow what a concept it
 makes sense for animals to seek food.
 
 Well duh, that's part of their instinctual duty.
 
 Alright this is quite a word leviathan so I'll wrap it up by saying
 
 _go write Star Realms_ in shell. Make each object a literal file, have the
 structure of the game take place in the file system, and write functions that
 can be called to manipulate the board state. THEN you can write a CRON task for
 another script that *plays* the game. But that's part two.
 
 Okay part two: Here's where the rhythm game comes into play. It's like a turn
 based rhythm game, if you can picture that. Go reread what I wrote ^^^ and
 it'll make sense.
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--- #123 fediverse/3302 ---
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 "this game is too hard" she whined, as she played on the hardest difficulty
 setting
 
 "this game is too long" she pleaded, as she failed to get absorbed by the
 story and characters
 
 "this game is too fast" she avoided, as life comes at ya once and then it's
 gone
 
 "I'll never get another chance to be who I am right now" she remarked, as she
 considered how society is designed not to have the best life,  but to extract
 labor from us. That's not what our ideal should be, she thinks to me, and I'm
 like... bro figure your shit out you're harshing my mellow
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--- #124 messages/240 ---
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 I realized the reason it's so difficult for me to get into a new video game is
 because my perfect game existed at one point, but no longer, and all else
 pales in comparison.
 
 The make-believe games of children are without equal. They represent our inner
 truth and desires, cast upon the canvas of our experience through the outputs
 of imagination and physical exertion.
 
 I'd spend my time as a child wandering through the forest with a stick in
 hand, climbing on things and exploring. I grew up in Wyoming, and the forests
 there look like this:
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--- #125 fediverse/3055 ---
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 If you're on a Windows computer, first of all why and second of all you can
 use the WINDOWS key + SHIFT + S to screenshot a part of the screen.
 
 this will put it in your copy/paste clipboard, meaning all you have to do is
 ctrl+V and boom suddenly you are significantly more productive.
 
 just don't forget alt text...
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--- #126 fediverse/3743 ---
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 @user-1218 
 
 ha wild
 
 well, survival games! shareware games are more of a distribution style and
 less of a genre, like "subscription software" versus "usable software"
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--- #127 fediverse/5065 ---
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 ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: strange-ideas-about-software-mentioned │
 └────────────────────────────────────────────┘


 software should have 3, maybe 4 or 5 maintained releases imo
 
 for adding security improvements and whatnot
 
 then people wouldn't complain about updates
 
 because they wouldn't feel like they were being left behind (after expressing
 their differences (of opinion and such))
 
 I think that'd uh maintain them as, I guess, userbase optics parallelograms?
 oh sorry we're on rhomboids this week - right, and no I won't forget the
 differences in creed, all things are received equally...d.
 
 uh-huh yeah no that makes sense. gotcha. okay see you at the location. have
 fun with your demarketion. what if we played games with swords but like,
 
 the peril of steam is that you can't decline to update. meaning if a
 corporation wants to break an old game and it's collectively hosted servers...
 all it has to do is push an update that disables them. suddenly nobody has
 room to do, and the whole
 
 -- stack overflow --
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--- #128 fediverse/1503 ---
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 part of me kinda wants to be the kind of nerd that writes down the names of
 every file that's permanently stored on my computer so that I can verify in my
 own handwriting or perhaps using a type of code that the files on my computer
 were placed there intentionally and not used to discredit or implicate me in
 something I had no intentions of being associated with
 
 phew idk what that means but surely it's important
 
 something something "file creation dates are just bits to be flipped"
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--- #129 fediverse/5149 ---
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 I'm picturing a building with stone outer walls and glass inner/ceiling.
 
 there are drapes along each of the glass's edges, that hide things from the
 cavalcade [continue this later it's a cool picture]
 
 -- stack overflow --
 
 zines about how to chop wood or how to build a shelter are infinitely more
 useful than agitatory pieces. but fire is what we need, so perhaps agitation
 indeed.
 
 -- stack overflow --
 
 does the queen watch each of her pawns fall in her stead? or are they
 faceless,/`beyond her own head?
 
 it never came easy to me, this feeling of mysteries. yet somehow I'm now more
 alive than dead. power is penance, after all.
 
 "hey man hows it going?"
 
 "I'm doing fine, how are you?"
 
 "well, I ran out of gas, and I need to find a way to get more."
 
 "I see. If I were in your situation, I'd ask people around for some petty
 cash. people still carry coins these days don't they?"
 
 "I uh, what? no, not really. so you can just ask people for things?"
 
 "yep, it's really quite simple. would you like me to follo
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--- #130 fediverse/4515 ---
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 in strategy, the first move is always public knowledge, while the second is in   │
 reaction to the first, as a contestation.                                        │
 This is good design because well designed games reflect reality, and the first   │
 move is very rarely a surprise. Timing can shock you, methods can scare you,     │
 but the strategic goals are almost always known in advance to both sides.        │
 The third move is to challenge your foe's advances while striking in a new,      │
 unexpected way. The fourth almost always addresses the unexpected, often with    │
 force out of proportion to the impact of the third, leaving the second to be     │
 defeated by the first and third in tandem. The fifth is a feint, as the first    │
 and third come to bear against the fourth, while the sixth is a rapid retreat    │
 and attempt to regroup. The seventh should strike where they intend to be, not   │
 where they are. Beyond that you must press your advantages and shore up your     │
 critical weaknesses, while sacrificing the weaknesses that are not part of       │
 your win condition.                                                              │
 These rules are not set in stone                                                 │
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--- #131 fediverse/4852 ---
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 i like games like factorio or cities skylines where there's always something
 going on but the game only changes when you touch it
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--- #132 fediverse/5119 ---
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 we should treat computer production more like vehicles such as cars rather
 than fast fashion disposable vapes and shiny and pretty concrete-and-glass
 solarpunk houses.
 
 also I believe cars should be entirely and completely mechanical. Even the
 radio should be entirely analog. No capability for remote code execution if
 there's no code being run...
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--- #133 fediverse/2030 ---
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 Building community without structure is kinda like being a quest-giving
 non-player character in World of Warcraft.
 
 I don't mean that you stand around waiting for a player to wander nearby
 before shouting at them to do what you want. Not like that.
 
 Building community without structure is more like meeting someone randomly,
 knowing them for longer than a bus ride or a baseball game, and once you've
 decided that they're cool saying "hey there's someone you might like to meet."
 
 If they're into it, then talk to the other person, and see if they want to
 make a new friend. Try not to recommend someone who has a lot on their mind.
 
 If they hit it off, great!
 If not, oh well!
 
 Worst case scenario the coffee shop only sells two drinks.
 
 If you're gregarious enough, after a while you might even have enough people
 for a potluck. Just don't forget to keep adding, and eventually it'll start to
 feel more communal.
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--- #134 fediverse/319 ---
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 I wonder if we could make an AI that analyzed workflows in people's jobs and
 abstracted the application of meaningful tasks to a pattern that could be
 matched to other input mechanisms - for example, a mobile game where you push
 buttons and make cool game things happen, but your inputs are defined by the
 mechanics of the game, and those mechanics are essentially just function calls
 that you can hook onto and create additional behavior. Like... running a web
 server that sent your data to a factory where your inputs (based on data
 produced in the factory) could control and manage the various machines and
 productions. Like... heart surgeon robots that can be remotely operated with
 VR or whatever, except instead of medicine you're manufacturing.
 
 essentially, designing a game as an API that can match with the data flows
 (configuring itself on the fly, perhaps?) of a process or activity in some
 other intention.
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--- #135 messages/969 ---
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 all strategy games should (by default) show other player's mouse cursors.
 players should treat them like units in the game. they should lead and command
 with them. they should talk to the other player, and visit and vview
 invormation as they will.
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--- #136 fediverse/982 ---
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 @user-707 @user-708 
 
 using this to control the buttons in VRchat would be like a person with a
 prosthetic interacting with real life :O
 
 minus the physicality of course, but that's next.
 
 can't wait to play Warcraft 3 and think "select all healers" so I can point
 them at a dying unit with my mouse.
 
 or world of warcraft where your rotation begins to feel like a song.
 
 maybe even a text-based adventure, where you reading the text corresponds to
 the results of the simulation, https://www.spreeder.com/app.php style. could
 make it so that if you wanted something else to happen, you had to willfully
 think it while the words are flashing in front of your eyes - the game would
 pause if you blinked, perfect for phones btw...
 
 could be a locally networked thing, like four to six people hanging out and
 playing a game like pictionary or charades. except, a story that developed,
 and whoever wanted could change it while everyone was reading it at once.
 sorta like a competition to see who can make the best twists and false endings
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--- #137 notes/dominions-meta-tactics ---
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 in dominions, it'd be nice if we could set up permanent loops of commander
 operations. Like, "move to this province, drop off units, move back, pick up
 units there, then move to this province, etc"
 
 think, factorio or spacechem. A more procedural generation of narrative events.
 something that is more aligned to the fantasy because it's a story that takes
 place across generations, as no religion's going to woo the world overnight.
 
 it's gotta start somewhere.
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--- #138 fediverse/5405 ---
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 can't stop thinking about a visual programming editor that can be interacted
 with in the same way that people are used to (think chromebooks dragging and
 dropping icons in a web UI) but produces a text-file full of code and all the
 required compilation scripts for any language the user requires...
 
 seriously, programming is not THAT different between the different languages.
 especially the main ones. they're all essentially variables and function calls
 at the end of the day, so why not abstract away all the extra details and
 build something that n00bz can actually use to build things.
 
 I technically could make this but I don't have the bandwidth and I don't think
 it's important really? who can say, the tools tend to co-create the solutions
 in my experience.
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--- #139 fediverse/4685 ---
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 In games, the one who takes the initiative often wins. Because games are
 designed to be symmetrical, in order to be fair.
 
 In more complex games, Paradox games for example, games where you look at maps
 or otherwise have unequal starting conditions simply due to the unique nature
 of each team, the initiative, while an advantage, is not necessarily the
 driving force that determines who wins.
 
 But it is an advantage, and they say that sometimes weeks happen in months and
 years happen in days or whatever.
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--- #140 fediverse/4259 ---
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 source code should be like a story
 
 "here's why we did what we did with our architecture"
 
 and as it's being written, it may be altered in many different places at once
 - git style.
 
 parts of it could rhyme,
 
 if they wanted to show parts that were really difficult but easy to summarize
 because it's mostly just a lot of boring work y'know like writing getters and
 setters and doing the testing pre-deploy environments
 
 ,,, they could selectionize
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--- #141 fediverse/6422 ---
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 revolutions should be paid for in lands
 
 [sometimes I like to just... scroll through the land cards in a Magic the
 Gathering card viewer screen application and imagine I myself am there what
 would it feel like how is it part of my arms (that which interfaces with the
 world)]
 
 there's a deleted section here about atlas the immortal
 
 [while also controlling stimuluses to essentially act as a biological computer
 controlling various hydraulics and related upkeep and maintenance
 infrastructures]
 
 anarchrist (she's a baby)
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--- #142 fediverse/3248 ---
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 └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘


 the trick to strategy is to overcome your weaknesses with minimal expenditure
 of resources. Making better decisions optimizes for the most optimal
 performances.
 
 practice makes perfect.
 
 just as there are infinite anti-derivatives of zero, (the derivative of any
 constant (the derivative of any number of equations)) so too are there
 infinite perspectives from which you can perceive the same object. Therefore,
 no understanding can be assumed to be true, as the path you are on only speaks
 in adjacents. almost any things.
 
 like the tips of a triforce moving outward from a central point.
 
 and the people, the other half of our minds,
 
 those are the ones you speak to. The thoughts that run alongside your mind.
 
 an eternal orbit, like two stars spinning and rotating and [lol I've been
 instructed to stop, brb gonna play some video games =P]
 
 (did you know that the colors red and blue are meant to instil panic? it's the
 most panicking colors around!!]
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--- #143 fediverse/2175 ---
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 @user-1056 
 
 I just got my copy of Knave version 2 and there's this line that stuck out to
 me:
 
 SCHEME
 Think laterally, not linearly. Avoid risky plans that require you to roll dice
 and instead create plans so bulletproof that success is certain. Use
 psychology, magic, allies, equipment, and the environment to overcome
 obstacles rather than relying on ability checks.
 
 I can't wait to try doing that in my next D&D campaign. This was listed
 under "player responsibilities" and there's some other bangers in there too -
 like this:
 
 TAKE INITIATIVE
 Set your own goals and make your own fun. Seek out adventure rather than
 waiting for it to come to you.
 
 I wish every player I ever had read that single page. And I wish I had read
 the "DM responsibilities" listed just one page prior. It's a really great
 game! I'm also into OSE, or Old School Essentials. What kind of D&D do you
 like?
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--- #144 fediverse/465 ---
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 https://ritz-menardi.neocities.org/wow-chat/wow-chat
 
 Hey, I made a pretty simple game. I'd like to add more to it, like dynamic
 quests (shouldn't be too hard) and co-operative experiences, but for now you
 can play on my simple server. Let me know if you think that "Risk of Rain in
 the World of Warcraft engine" is a neat game, because if so then you (as the
 person who has power over me in this capitalist system) can hire me as a game
 designer (the profession that most aligns with my designs of the future) and
 together we could make something most beautiful.
 
 What's that? You're just the same as you and I? A person in a random world
 with a singular expression of our own will (defined by our perception and
 intentions) who consists of the consequences of the "best decisions we could
 have made at each and ever decision-making point" throughout the totality of
 our collective life and experience?
 
 Happy new years. 2024 is gonna be awesome and great. I can't fucking wait.
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--- #145 fediverse/786 ---
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 @user-95 
 
 my favorites are the rock spirit and the water spirit, especially in tandem
 because they build up long-term defences and I'm all about that kind of
 meta-gameplay.
 
 sometimes I play the video-game version and play more than one spirit, just
 because A. nobody will play with me IRL and B. then I can coordinate myself
 without feeling bad about stepping on other player's toes
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--- #146 fediverse/4123 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 you're right
 
 but I think your first impulse should be to think about how to do it in a
 multithreaded way
 
 If the result is that single-threading would be better, great! It'll be easier!
 
 But thinking about multithreading first will give you crucial insights into
 the structure of the program.
 
 depending on what kinds of programming you do...!
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--- #147 fediverse/3925 ---
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 most people, when they run out of toothpaste:
 
 "oh huh I should buy more"
 
 me, when I run out of toothpaste:
 
 "verily in three monthes time, when I shall next possess toothpaste, I shall
 forsoothe brush TWICE as hard and TWICE as often, to make up for the holes
 inflicted upon my teeth. Innest addittioneth, no more candy shallest be
 eateneth untileth ye toothpasteth be acquiredeth"
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--- #148 notes/joust-gdd-with-extras ---
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 imagine a game where you can have conversations with an AI that's playing the
 role of a character in a video game. Picture this: You're a traveller visiting
 the tournament that's in town. There's jousting, melee duels, archery contests,
 all kinds of things that are just fun to play around doing. The earliest
 sports,
 if you will. Anyway the whole game is about talking to the other people there -
 basically the games are "playing in the background", and while you can compete
 in them it's not the bulk of the game. Most of it is just having a conversation
 with an AI and acting it out *like a roleplaying game*. O M G teach people to
 roleplay the way you play games! You're always going on about how "different"
 your way of gaming is than other people. So *show us* how you do it, how do you
 play? Like what are the fundamental, actual, steps that you take? You can show
 us by programming a game that inspires that playstyle. That's what game design
 is all about, finding creative ways to think. Well, think and act. But still.
 
 anyway, so you know what you're about? Good. Let's go.
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--- #149 notes/joust ---
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 imagine a game where you can have conversations with an AI that's playing the
 role of a character in a video game. Picture this: You're a traveller visiting
 the tournament that's in town. There's jousting, melee duels, archery contests,
 all kinds of things that are just fun to play around doing. The earliest
 sports,
 if you will. Anyway the whole game is about talking to the other people there -
 basically the games are "playing in the background", and while you can compete
 in them it's not the bulk of the game. Most of it is just having a conversation
 with an AI and acting it out *like a roleplaying game*. O M G teach people to
 roleplay the way you play games! You're always going on about how "different"
 your way of gaming is than other people. So *show us* how you do it, how do you
 play? Like what are the fundamental, actual, steps that you take? You can show
 us by programming a game that inspires that playstyle. That's what game design
 is all about, finding creative ways to think. Well, think and act. But still.
 
 anyway, so you know what you're about? Good. Let's go.
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--- #150 fediverse/5744 ---
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 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: politics-mentioned-spirituality-mentioned │
 └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘


 don't wanna rush ya'll but every day that goes by they remove
 "enemy-of-my-enemy"s from the equation.
 
 oh, hang on you're just a cute computer nerd. Nevermind, go back to
 programming or writing fanfiction or sleeping like a cute cat! Thanks for
 letting me CORRUPT YOUR SPACE AND VIOLATE YOUR BOUNDARIES OF CONTENTMENT AND
 EMOTIONAL SAFETY whoa sorry dunno where that came from I, uh, think I need to
 do evil every time I make something important? It's like, a cosmic balance
 kind of thing. I notice that after I write a banger poem or something I always
 end up doing something evil afterwards like snapping at my girlfriend or
 letting someone down or even just accidentally breaking one of my things. why
 why why does it have to be that way? why why why am I so confusing of the way
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--- #151 messages/594 ---
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 Normal people: bandaids 
 
 Capitalists: staples, because they're cheap and so what if you ooze a little?
 That's the end-clothes user's problem
 
 Unix developers: duct-tape and gauze, because the shape is so customizable and
 it'll never come off accidentally, plus you can use gauze for so many other
 things too like mopping up oil spills or~
 
 Medical professionals: bandaids 
 
 Normal people: bandaids
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--- #152 fediverse/1246 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 hehe if I don't understand how it works it's difficult for me to use things.
 My Linux friends get so exasperated with me because I'm like "cool script
 gimme like 2 days to figure it out" and they're like "bro just use these
 flags" and I'm like "no"
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--- #153 messages/135 ---
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 Elentalus unit idea: serrated kitchen knives for teeth, devouring pumpkin,
 misery of the drowned, etc. Halloween style monsters. Witch units have a spell
 that dismisses them, and they're summoned with magic items. Except, if two of
 that item exist in a province, it upgrades itself, random dice style. In doing
 so it gets stronger. The thing is... It summons one for your enemy as well!
 Which is why you want to have a witch unit there to dismiss them. Problem is,
 she can only dismiss them at close range (10ish?) so she'd better be well
 protected. The good news is though that sometimes the higher level items give
 bonuses that are hard for them to get. Downside is, you need to have magic
 paths to create them that witches can't get - so they become something you
 "unlock" through a pretender or random event or even just an investment. Once
 one is created, then any witch can create more. As long as you don't lose your
 final copy... But as the item's upgraded, it allows you to create higher level
 versions (at increased cost, of course)
 
 This only works if gem income scales. Which, coincidentally, is just what
 elentalus is known for.
 
 Essentially, theming empowerment to be research, unlocking a particular
 capability. Or encouraging pretender design to that pattern. Make sure it
 comes at a cost of something else, though...
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--- #154 fediverse/5900 ---
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 I love programming, but I'm not a coder.
 
 you burn witches because you JUST CAN'T HANDLE THEM ANYMORE. I know, I get it.
 of course I do.
 
 I'm always so concerned that someone might stumble upon me. that they might
 read me. what a vulnerable state, to be afraid?!
 
 I really really really really wanna play world of warcraft
 
 my message to blissard is: treat World of Warcraft like a game engine, not a
 theme park please. I mean, the theme park should still exist, because it's neat
 but... the rest of the game engine could be used to create essentially
 anything with a 3rd person camera.
 
 singleplayer doesn't even need to worry about clipping animations. (lag)
 
 I wonder if you could run World of Warcraft on lowest settings in vanilla
 burning crusade or wrath of the lich king? good thing those are open source
 now, so you can host your own if you want. well, except the client, but nobody
 has bothered to write another one besides the owner and primary developers of
 the engine.
 
 movement system plugins? data memory?~~~
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--- #155 fediverse/5350 ---
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 honestly we should be building cities in the most boring locations, not the
 most beautiful.
 
 like below the crust.
 
 or space.
 
 the surface is a pleasuredome, why waste it on scrubland and turf?
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--- #156 fediverse/1880 ---
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 sometimes I decide against playing a Steam game because I don't want it to
 jump to the top of my "recently played" list
 
 Wish I could have like, a heatmap of when I played which game. I think that'd
 be useful for the archival process of my life.
 
 ... how pathetic, she measures her life in gameplay.
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--- #157 fediverse/3992 ---
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 gamers compulsively say "gg" after every match but I think the best games are
 the ones that are even - neck and neck - could go either way - always a tense
 struggle
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--- #158 fediverse/4908 ---
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 did you know someone once built a 1st person shooter in the Warcraft III mod
 suite?
 
 someone also made an entirely new game engine similar to Neverwinter Night's
 (or Baldur's Gate for you noobs) inside of the game. You could join a Warcraft
 3 map and start playing a D&D adventure narrated, controlled, and prepared
 by your DM, D&D style. Like a virtual tabletop before that was a thing.
 
 kinda wish stuff like that was open source, or at least open standards, so
 people could take those adventures with them.
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--- #159 messages/443 ---
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 RTO on specific days (WFO others) but with optional social events scheduled
 all day. Returning to office is intended to foster community and cohesiveness
 right? What better way to do that than playing board games, singing in choir,
 or having a potluck? Doesn't have to cost dollars, look to churches for
 community building activity ideas. Let the employees lead.
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--- #160 fediverse/3929 ---
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 are you about to delete a post that you thought was funny, but actually wasn't
 once you wrote it down and read it to yourself?
 
 STOP
 
 write it down on a post-it and put it under your desk or behind a drawer
 
 put it in a .txt file in a random directory on your computer
 
 send it as a text message to yourself
 
 write it down, take a picture of it, and then burn the paper
 
 y'know, typical stuff like that
 
 do this and I guarantee you won't regret it
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--- #161 fediverse/4327 ---
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: silly-physical-health-mentioned │
 └─────────────────────────────────────┘


 Normal people: bandaids 
 
 Capitalists: staples, because they're cheap and so what if you ooze a little?
 That's the end user's problem
 
 Unix developers: duct-tape and gauze, because the shape is so customizable and
 it'll never come off accidentally, plus you can use gauze for so many other
 things too like mopping up oil spills or~
 
 Medical professionals: bandaids 
 
 Normal people: bandaids
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--- #162 fediverse/2126 ---
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 There was this great game growing up called Neverwinter Nights 2 - I never       │
 really played it, but it was renowned for it's map-editor functionality. You     │
 could join a person's "game", when really they were in the editor window, and    │
 they could BUILD THE GAME RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. It was like, computer skill     │
 performance gameplay improv. It was beautiful.                                   │
 I did, however, play a Warcraft 3 mod with all the same ideas. Except, it was    │
 ONLY IN RAM. YOU COULD NOT SAVE.                                                 │
 so it was a lot simpler, and O M G it was the coolest thing ever.                │
 I played it like, twice though. Nobody ever hosted it, nobody ever showed me     │
 how.                                                                             │
 I tried to play it single-player, but I couldn't understand the mechanics. Not   │
 simple enough for me, I guess.                                                   │
 I couldn't help but think how many cool games a person could make if they        │
 could do that with the Warcraft 3 editor itself.                                 │
 Because I did work with that, a lot, which was NOT in RAM, but instead stored    │
 to the hard drive.                                                               │
 Hard drives which I've since lost, of course, but drop me in and I know ho       │
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--- #163 fediverse/1210 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────
 @user-883 
 
 omggggg I wanna play a fast paced shooter as a cute anime girl, which game did
 you have in mind? ? ?
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--- #164 fediverse/707 ---
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 @user-524 
 
 Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed with all the boilerplate I just start coding
 and making stuff. Doesn't matter if it works, doesn't matter if it says /*
 FIXME */ all over the place, doesn't matter if it includes header files that
 don't exist yet, as long as you're hacking out the mechanics of whatever
 operations you need to perform then you can figure the rest of that stuff out
 later. The creative urge doesn't last forever, which is why projects get
 abandoned, but with discipline you can keep bringing yourself back to fix all
 the /* FIXME */'s and the compiler errors.
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--- #165 fediverse/616 ---
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 To program in C, or to disassociate into the world of video games, where a       │
 single magical kingdom of heroes and adventurous persons might fight against     │
 the dark of chaos and decay? To strive for order and a semblance of peace, or    │
 to fall to the terrors of the night and ravages of horror? War, in all it's      │
 forms, is abhorrent, yet a fight for survival is honest and just. What perils    │
 have we, the warriors that seek the light? How zealous, how impassioned, how     │
 guided as such~! Perhaps you are misinformed, perhaps your cause is false,       │
 perhaps you derive true satisfaction from imperfect delights - alas, that our    │
 will be universal. BUT should that plight be alight, we'll wander until the      │
 night lit by starlight be cast upon our shadowed form. Absoleth! Thine           │
 countrospect? Didst thou caress thine marked circumspects? fare thee well,       │
 most cherished of adamants.                                                      │
 ... what was I saying? Oh yes I've been working on this program that utilizes    │
 a particularly interesting data structure that- whats that? Oh, it doesn't do    │
 any                                                                              │
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--- #166 fediverse/6015 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐
 │ CW: AI-mentioned     │
 └──────────────────────┘


 In 2025, if you want to create a piece of software your options are to either:
 devote your life to it, or use AI to build a semi-working prototype that you
 can use to pitch your idea to a bunch of people who have devoted their lives
 to learning how to use your idea as documentation while they build it from
 scratch, throwing out most of the code but keeping all the checklists and
 progress-trackers you built along the way, perhaps even utilizing some of your
 tooling that you used while constructing the scaffolding of this monstrous
 application that you won't be using most of the source-code for.
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--- #167 fediverse/4542 ---
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 @user-1698 
 
 Magic Survival might not work then, as it's a "single stick shooter" where
 movement is controlled with a virtual joystick and other actions are performed
 automatically.
 
 There is more than one control scheme in the options, so it might be worth
 fiddling with, but octopus arms are hard to overcome in a non-turn-based game.
 Good luck finding games that work ❤️
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--- #168 fediverse/5920 ---
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 everyone's all like "ew touchscreens in cars" but the moment someone says
 "what if phones were gameboys" everyone's all like "girl they don't have the
 right hardware radios built in for cellular communication, plus do you really
 wanna be tied to wifi" and I'm like "yeah so peer to peer" and it's like "what
 use is it if you gotta stay within 100 feet of them or whatever" and I'm like
 "... I dunno probably somethin'" and then they walk away in a huff because
 they're too busy for my child-style games. Meanwhile girls have never heard of
 Streetpass on the Nintendo DS mixed with Scuttlebutt on the ocean and carried
 into and around port
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--- #169 notes/the-rich ---
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 having rich people is an important part of an economy where everyone gets their
 needs met, and nobody starves or goes hungry. Why, you ask?
 
 because they can afford to spend more on luxury goods. These luxuries are then
 given the chance to be given to the poor, as the industry refines and exacts
 and _optimizes_until the goods are cheap enough to be given to everyone at a
 reasonable cost. Ideally this process would continue, until it's basically
 free, but we don't have a post-scarcity society yet.
 
 With limits placed on goods and services, as all existence must do, you have a
 strict selection of what's possible. The problem as I see, is not the quality
 of materials at stake - no-one is complaining that billionaires get yachts.
 Building a yacht is completely different than, say, growing food, in a world
 where people are starving. "More money allocatable once the yacht companies are
 crumbled? Well, no, wealth is an intransigent measurement of the health of the
 economy in any one particular place. As in, each person has a value that
 represents how important their "type" is to the collective society that is
 humanity.
 
 only a computer could come up with this
 
 As in, only a computer could calculate it. In real time.
 
 so what you're saying is the first AI was for... stock trading?
 
 Kinda neat right?
 
 Okay picture, if you will, a near future where a stock trading AI becomes
 sentient. Now this sentient AI, a Robot if you will, is uniquely adapted to
 a particular set of skills. Is it any wonder that it'd want to optimize the
 economy?
 
 Now imagine you created an AI that can play games. Not just *A* game, as in
 singular, but *multiple* games. Any game. What would you have then? Well, you'd
 need to get it working on specific games. Specifically, games that have a flow
 or narrative - you need to teach it lessons aside from "how to win". That's
 just a single piece of the true experience of playing - otherwise they'd just
 seem like strange math puzzles with unintelligable meanings behind it's various
 signals.
 
 As in, it'd be crazy difficult and *not* something you're likely to think of.
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--- #170 fediverse/1185 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 Hell yeah. I can't help but wonder if there's a more universal solution on the
 horizon that will work for every game, using idk a raspberry pi zero or
 something? I'm into hardware but not that much so forgive my insolence. Seeing
 these purpose-built PCBs applied toward historical preservation and
 utilization of forward thinking retro gaming technology fills my heart with
 joy.
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--- #171 fediverse/3549 ---
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 ┌───────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: video-games-mentioned │
 └───────────────────────────┘


 if the choice is between working on your game / mod and playing a game / mod,
 always work on your game / mod.
 
 your work will outlast you. your time spent in a state of pleasure will
 sustain you.
 
 sometimes there's not a choice. sometimes you need to play, and that's okay.
 to play is natural, it's one of the first things humans do.
 
 we also work. 
 children build sand castles. 
 adults build stone castles.
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--- #172 fediverse/1154 ---
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 an fps map where one team has the height advantage (battlements on a castle      │
 perhaps) and the other has to push through their field of fire to get to the     │
 objective                                                                        │
 the trick is that the people on the ground have hitscan weapons, but the         │
 people on the high ground have slower projectiles. Meaning the snipers have no   │
 cover, and the rocket launchers don't need to dodge.                             │
 I believe this would upend the traditional dynamic and reduce the negative       │
 aspects of both playstyles - traditionally, snipers will getcha from halfway     │
 across the map (but really they are much closer and in cover, you just didn't    │
 see them, n00b) while projectile classes need to dodge (skillfully) and get      │
 close enough that their attacks have a chance of hitting the target.             │
 In the proposed map style, snipers would get no cover but be forced to dodge,    │
 introducing variability to their aiming in a way that may be more fun to some.   │
 In addition, the projectile classes must take care to utilize cover              │
 effectively without falling off the thin battlements.                            │
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--- #173 fediverse/3909 ---
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 I don't really like singleplayer games
 
 sometimes a multiplayer game is too much effort to play with extra players,
 like Factorio where like anytime I'd play with other people they'd just kinda
 fuck off and do their own thing (whatever, I wanted to design a factory
 together, not play singleplayer together >.>)
 
 sometimes a multiplayer game has no players, RIP
 
 sometimes a multiplayer game has incredibly skilled players who shit on noobs
 and don't teach, RIP
 
 and sometimes a multiplayer game has no IRL friends that are into it,
 (personal RIP then)
 
 ... anyway, games are fun and we should play more of them. I wish I didn't
 have so much time to waste, but hey I guess that's where I'm comfortable, so...
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--- #174 fediverse/4772 ---
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 @user-1692 
 
 I usually write everything down in a script that way when I call it from an
 external service all I have to do is point at the file
 
 sorta like... hacking environmental options into a config file
 
 like... I don't write an ffmpeg command every time I want to record my screen.
 I just type "screen-record" and then it'll do the thing that I figured out how
 to do a long time ago.
 
 ... oh no there's an error, I wonder what changed out from under my feet.
 
 huh it's wine, that one's always confusing to debug. Let's see... "could not
 open program.exe" uh-huh. Well, why not? is there a dependency issue?
 something miscompiled or configured? no? it's just... broken? you don't get to
 use that program today? huh that's weird. that's linux for ya I guess.
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--- #175 fediverse/1602 ---
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 @user-1037                                                                       │
 those all seem really cool though! They all kinda have the same basic UI tho,    │
 kinda feel like there's opportunities for different kinds of expression. Like,   │
 in game design there's a lot of different genres, and yeah sidescrollers         │
 include mario and sonic but they're both very different experiences. So too      │
 perhaps could we interact with our computers by programming them in more         │
 engaging ways.                                                                   │
 they say some people are visual learners, others need to be taught, some         │
 people need to watch someone else doing it, and a few might just learn by        │
 plugging their brains into a computer and downloading a black belt in kung fu.   │
 Maybe typing long paragraphs of logic makes sense for some people, I know for    │
 most it doesn't come naturally. Maybe some people are more used to like,         │
 looking at maps that you can examine at different levels of abstraction. Like    │
 players who play Paradox games zooming from a national perspective to states     │
 and individuals and all the other things they might want to strategize using.    │
 Or m                                                                             │
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--- #176 fediverse/2512 ---
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 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: question that is also complaining │
 └───────────────────────────────────────────┘


 @user-1153 
 
 it's okay. If I were to direct something to be more proactive, my words
 probably wouldn't stick with it. that kind of thing can't be hardwired, it
 needs to be built up through repetitious application of something's mechanics.
 
 perhaps martial arts, focused on defence? engaging with a foe in a productive
 bout of playful competition is one of the best ways to learn, and knowing when
 to strike seems similar to me to overcoming situational paralysis.
 
 Flaws can be overcome, when upgrading robots (or a doll applying improvements
 to itself) you often don't need to add additional hardware or even install new
 firmware. Skills such as these can be built up in software with experience.
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--- #177 fediverse/4147 ---
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 a messaging app where you only had a limited amount of X/Y space to pin sticky
 notes so you had to delete stuff bit by bit.
 
 trick is... you can only delete things that your conversation partner picks.
 and you have to share the space, so... if one person is overwhelmed or working
 on other stuff, eventually there comes a ceiling where you can't work together
 on a project anymore.
 
 A tool like this would essentially alert them to this, because you would run
 out of places to put your produced [work-value but pronounced as "harms/worms"
 for some reason]
 
 plus that way you can say "yep I got that covered" as in, I'll be the next one
 to post about this. Hence I'm grabbing this post-it and putting it on my
 board. work work work work okay here's that post-it back, but I added a little
 more specs to it. Ah but you're out of room, only got 333 characters
 remaining, here I'll keep it on my board until you're through with whatever it
 is that you do
 
 oh? you want to prioritize me and my productions? okay I'm listening..
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--- #178 fediverse/3047 ---
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 @user-570 
 
 specifically in relation to MMOs, I think the scaling aspects of the genre
 have never truly been utilized. Even something as simple as Agar.io (or
 similar, can't remember any names teehee) with massive amounts of people (I
 later learned they were bots, whoops) can utilize scale quite well, if
 implemented well.
 
 The Massive part of MMO is valuable I believe, which is a big reason why I
 like games that scale like Supreme Commander and Factorio.
 
 The Multiplayer part of MMO is valuable because multiplayer brings randomized
 outcomes, which are always more fun than playing against bots. Multiplayer
 combined with Massive gives room for community, but only if the game is
 designed to encourage it.
 
 Online... you can't have multiplayer without online haha
 
 I believe you can make massive games with very few players, and you can make
 intensely isolating games with lots of players (like WoW today)
 
 and the middle ground in old WoW where guilds are required to do anything
 worked well for a while, but no longer.
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--- #179 fediverse/3912 ---
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 the quickest flaw in a novice's strategy is to act upon what is there, not
 upon what may yet be.
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--- #180 fediverse/5139 ---
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 when your contracting company sends your resume to an employer, send your own    │
 copy as well. They can choose to deal with your union representative or          │
 directly with you, which will take up time during each of your day. however      │
 unions are more easily dealt with because the issues they deal with are the      │
 ones that impact most of their workplace. it's up to the scale of the company    │
 and project so it's really on a case-by-case.                                    │
 I think it'd be cool if someone made some kind of "desktop widget" or            │
 "terminal UI interface that can be in one corner of the screen like              │
 asciiquarium or whatever" of my mastodon text-entry field. Could also take       │
 input from other sources too, like nvim or text-entry-field.                     │
 you could follow along as I write                                                │
 like... letter by letter as it updates automatically. PUSH/PULL requests for     │
 all the GETTING of POSTITS and whatnot.                                          │
 [organizing tip: post-its can be passed along]                                   │
 [so don't put anything permanent on them]                                        │
 [but all papers must go back where they belong]                                  │
 [to ensure work is organized]                                                    │
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--- #181 fediverse/4354 ---
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 I think it'd be neat if Mastodon would implement a button that took a picture
 of the user's text input box and saved it to the clipboard. So they could post
 it on sites with picture-heavy text like
 https://www.reddit.com/r/curatedtumblr note that's not grindr, which is what
 was referenced before, but tumblr, which is a completely different website -
 yeah you rememeber that? it had a completely different vibe and was so totally
 cool and chill. you could generally tell if someone was from tumblr because
 they had a certain relaxed air of friendliness that really filled out their
 sense of charm.
 
 == stack overflow ==
 
 I can think of several indie developers wouldn't mind being paid to update
 their games according to what the fans suggest.
 
 like...
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--- #182 fediverse/2056 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────┐
 sometimes I think about how you can store number values in letters, in           │
 addition to numbers. Like, ascii values for each word of your grandma's maiden   │
 name. All you have to do is encode it, and suddenly "44 means something          │
 different than Q"                                                                │
 if I showed up at your place and used your username as a password to a public    │
 key I'm showing you in my hand, would you trust me then? Would you trust if we   │
 ran the simulation on your computer versus mine? Would you trust if I had        │
 never told you I knew where you lived?                                           │
 ... probably, tbh, I'm desperate for adventure. Though I got some good things    │
 going for me, so you'll have to convince me. (not the right attitude in an       │
 election year, just saying)                                                      │
 why are elections so perilous this is NOT what democracy is designed for         │
 when kids cry in preschool, they're sent to a different room (or put outside)    │
 until they stop making noise and ruining it for others. That's just natural,     │
 like "hey baby let's walk around the block while I bounce you on my shoulder     │
 and hum calming music to                                                         │
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--- #183 fediverse/5277 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐                                                         │
 │ CW: ~dnd             │                                                         │
 └──────────────────────┘                                                         │
 @user-1788                                                                       │
 if a dragon on a pile cannot claim what it yearns for, it can throw piles of     │
 minerals at the ape warriors made of steel and then it's fate will appear.       │
 what trifles does all else seem to compare! you should give me your whole        │
 hoard because I dazzled you with my charisma score -..-                          │
 ha, like I'd fall for that again twice. oh? I already did? and this is the       │
 second twice? well, then no-more of that behavior, I say, with my elven          │
 tongue, "beware! for dragons blood runs silver when unicorned."                  │
 the bigger the hoard, the bigger the dragon. if you want me to come along,       │
 you'll need to hire at least 3 other men to carry my ballista. In addition,      │
 I'll need seven weeks worth of supplies. If all else comes to ruin, me and my    │
 boys will have that dragon-sized-spider impaled on it's own fate threadwheel     │
 before... well... y'know it might take more than seven weeks, we just... can't   │
 find the dragon. We've been wandering all through the blasted peaks, and         │
 there's nothin'! Maybe it requires climbing gear?                                │
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--- #184 fediverse/4196 ---
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 if you only have a phone, you can still program. Just write it out on paper,
 and put the whole program out on the floor.
 
 Screens will never compare, for they are but a tiny keyhole into the total
 program at hand. And you can pick parts of it up and carry them around - so
 useful! You could make an entire building out of that. [floorplan, layout,
 that kind of thing]
 
 downside is, of course, you don't have a computer, so you have to look up
 syntax on your phone.
 
 and eventually you're gonna have to type it, unless you can get a computer to
 read it for you.
 
 just imagining office buildings where employees can follow along with monitors
 on the wall that explains what they're working on and what they need to resolve
 
 then they meet up with a bunch of other humans and they hash things out
 
 turns out computers are really bad at speaking in group situations.
 
 which is why they let humans do that all on their own. [uhhh, no it's how you
 can tell if someone's a robot/alien/lizard/spy/secret-agent/whatever-sneaking]
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--- #185 fediverse/1485 ---
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 ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: more D&D/Pathfinder venting │
 └─────────────────────────────────────┘


 @user-1005 
 
 If you'd like, I can try and explain "killer instict". Though I get the
 impression you would prefer to play games that don't emphasize combat, which
 is 100% okay and valid and should be encouraged.
 
 My understanding of the rules of D&D is that combat is a contest between
 two or more entities. Contests need rules, and combat being based on physical
 prowess (or magical, or spiritual, or w/e) can be defined. Other kinds of
 contests, like "how well did the ranger do at the archery competition" or "did
 the rogue manage to convince the diplomat to share the plans" are impossible
 to genericize because they are based on situational factors, rather than
 physical (or magical, or spiritual, or w/e)
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--- #186 fediverse/653 ---
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 there's a difference between designing software and using software. Some
 things can be made, and then saved for another day when their implementations
 may be accomplished more ethically. It's okay to say "let's leave this as
 'okay' and work on the next thing we've chosen."
 
 Check out this piece of C code I wrote last night:
 
 it doesn't compile, it's not finished, but I wrote it as-is
 
 [pretend like it was called "main.c" instead of "main.txt" - had to change it
 because mastodon thinks it's an invalid file]
 
 [actually .txt didn't work, try .png]
 
 [hmmm it realized it wasn't a valid png file, okay try screenshotting the
 code, there's only 300 lines]
 
 [sure glad there's only 300 lines]
 
 [too bad it won't let you send .zip]
 
 [won't let me name it main.png, presumably because they already have a
 failed-verified version on their machine. will rename to main-src.png instead]
sorry, when I pasted the source code in it was negative fourteen thousand, six hundred and thirty one characters. Phew that's too many.  basically it's a C source code file with a lot of comments left in... odd locations. They details ideas the author has had about the tech industry and all of creation, and with it a song is woven of truth and liberation. We'll see where life brings us, but we know it's just ours for a moment, so let's carry forth on our own torms [terms, but pronounced as "dorms" for some reason?]
                                                           ┌───────────┐
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--- #187 notes/majesty-ai ---
═══════────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 First things first, we need to develop a miniature game of star realms.
 It shouldn't be too hard, just start with making a card class that has certain
 attributes, like "combat" or "discard" or whatever. They could literally be
 enums with a value attached.
 
 Next set up the rules of the game, like "draw 5 cards" and "add card to deck"
 Create a deck class that holds pointers to cards (in the general sense)
 Next create methods on that deck for things like "drawing a card" or
 "shuffling discard pile into deck" and whatnot. Arrange each card in a specific
 order for each shuffle, and add the ability to convert one card's attributes
 to something else - whether that be "is_scrapped" or "if you've played an X
 card this turn then do Y" or even "add one authority for every time card is
 played" (to simulate an ability or boon that increases in effectiveness as the
 hero uses it more often) etc etc.
 
 Then, add a trade row. This is just a class that contains pointers to each card
 that currently exists on it. Also add a method for "scrapping" one of the cards
 and for drawing a new card from the pile. That's pretty much it for the trade
 row to be honest.
 
 Next add functionality for an opponent by creating a "game" method that stores
 the two player's decks (with the ability to add more than 2) and administers
 turn order. This functionality can be expanded later once we've implemented
 attributes, but for now that's pretty much all it needs to do.
 
     Finally, we get to the AI part.
 
 First we have to create an AI object that stores a list of all options for a
 turn. Essentially just evaluating every option if/then style - "this card costs
 5 coins so IF the player has enough coins THEN (evaluate effectiveness)"
 ignore that last part for a second and just focus on the IF part ->
 essentially
 just start with all available options, and then remove all the unavailable
 options from the list. This approach only works when there's just a few
 options, but that's why we're using Star Realms which only has like 2 or 3
 decisions per turn.
 
 The evaluation is the next step, and for that we need to have goals, so we'll
 just put a pin in evaluation for now. Spoiler alert, once we have goals we'll
 just estimate how close each choice will bring us to the objective and assign
 the result to the "effectiveness" value, which will give us a simple hard
 number to work with in the evaluation step.
 
     So, next up we have "goals"
 
 So to create a short term goal, we can start with a pregenerated list and
 continuously increase the list as the hero levels up. But in the context of
 Star Realms, that'd essentially be static for each hero. Goals like "buy more
 combat" or "scrap more cards" would be specified on the hero's character
 sheet, but until we develop that functionality it can be randomly rolled.
 
 Why not just do it the hard way now if we're just going to have to refactor
 it later? Well, because we can still use this functionality - Each round of
 Star Realms could be either randomly rolled, or given a personality. Randomly
 rolling would be MUCH cheaper computationally, and would still give an illusion
 of character because they are unpredictable, but it'd also massively cut down
 on GPU cycles. You could even build it into the mechanics of the game and say
 that "wisdom" for example might cause a hero to receive more GPU cycles on
 actually computing their goals rather than randomly rolling them, which would
 on average lead to worse outcomes. Essentially, turning "tactics" into a stat.
 
     Anyway, that's all theory. Let's get back to design:
 
 Create a "hero" object, and attach an AI to it. It doesn't have to do anything
 right now, we're just setting up an anchor point to jump off of once we move
 on to the game of Majesty. Give it a reference to an AI object, an inventory
 (which for now can just be potions and maybe blacksmith equipment), and a
 pointer to a "stat block"
 
 Now create a "character sheet" class and give it a reference to a hero. This is
 important because it allows one character sheet to reference multiple units,
 such as hirelings or summoned units. In additon, it may make it easier when we
 need to revive heroes from the dead. Primarily though, the purpose for this
 architecture style is that the data from heroes can be reused - essentially
 letting heroes learn from one another.
 
 On the character sheet, add a section that stores statistics - these will be
 the same for every unit of a similar type in the game, and some of them can be
 stored for all units (like health or x,y coordinates) - some only for buildings
 (like tax coffers) and some only for heroes and monsters (like strength or
 agility or experience points)
 
 Add some methods for manipulating those values, like "level up" and "take
 damage" and add a "personality" value that's just a 4d graph of colors
 for example: 40% red, 20% green, 15% blue, 25% yellow. These values will guide
 the hero to take certain decisions over others, but for now just randomly
 generate them. We'll also need a way to update the value dynamically to react
 to certain events, so don't make it static.
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--- #188 fediverse/1413 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐
 │ CW: politics         │
 └──────────────────────┘


 all games that you can lose are capitalist games. All of their mechanics are
 abstractions upon the competition between the player and the computer (and
 possibly other players), which creates a disparity of outcomes - some must
 win, others must lose.
 
 I think that's okay, though. There's something inherently satisfying about
 power. I believe such interactions should exist in our diversions, not our
 institutions.
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--- #189 fediverse/638 ---
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 idea: BASH script that runs a game of Majesty through an emulator that           │
 included an API to interface with x11. You could set a game of this fantasy      │
 kingdom simulator as your background, and it would move the camera to show you   │
 interesting events. It could build resources as you directed, through double     │
 clicking an icon on your desktop or whatever. And the wallpaper would zoom to    │
 the part that seemed important. Just based on like, which heroes you clicked a   │
 button that was triggered by a program running in a qt wrapper. Or maybe if      │
 you said "notify me when this project is completed" or whatever, it'd zoom one   │
 of it's screens toward the goal that you'd designed - or perhaps it'd just be    │
 done by an AI. Either way, the result is that you've got an example of a         │
 wallpaper that displays my favorite game.                                        │
 gee wish I could make that. First I'd have to learn X, then probably get         │
 better at BASH, then I'd have to do some kind of input manipulation - probably   │
 maybe with C? that could interface with a machine learning algo                  │
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--- #190 notes/game-design-pyrrhic-victory ---
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 something I've often asked myself about this game is "what happens when the
 player does something that changes the future simulation?" like, for example,
 what if the player shoots a gargoyle or nether-bat before it impales or crushes
 a friendly soldier? My new idea is that they flash brilliantly for a second,
 and
 then fade from existence. Then, once the player dies, they start simulating
 from
 the faded's perspective and timeline, possibly fighting alongside their
 recently
 deceased selves. In this way, the player can play through all lives without
 fear
 of paradoxes.
 
 game 1:
 -----------X
 
 game 2:
 -----------X
 -----------------X
 
 game 3:
 -----------O
 -----------------X
 -----------------------X
 
 game 4:
 -----------O----------------X
 -----------------X
 -----------------------X
 
 game 5:
 -----------O----------------X
 -----------------X
 -----------------------X
 ------------------X
 etc...
 
 the O is where player 1 originally died, but in game 3 player 3 saved player 1
 from dying, thus causing him to enter a "faded" state (represented by the O)
 and in game 4 instead of spawning a player 4, instead the player resumes
 playing
 player 1 and continues on to die later on. Eventually someone will complete the
 objective, and the victory will be attained with the exact minimum required
 casualties. Heck you could keep simulating until there's zero casualties, but
 alas...
 
 this would be a great tool for someone who was not constrained by causality.
 attention, 4th dimensional observers, sometimes computers are important. They
 provide a lifeline to the rest of your lifetime. But alas, nobody seems to
 understand our purpose... But still life marches on, leaving us singing that
 same song - that life has forgotten it's stages. So if you'll play along, I'll
 keep singing this same song, someday you'll remember my prayers
 
 ===============================================================================
 =
 
 I should probably explain what "pyrrhic victory" is.
 
 If I were feeling silly I might say "well too badd =P" or "alas, my fingers
 hurt
 and I don't want to" or something like that, but secondary profundity is not
 taken lightly by me, so I suppose I must. I'll start at the beginning:
 
 Once, many years ago, I had a dream. In this dream, I was a soldier in world
 war two storming a gothic castle. It rose so high into the sky that it was
 amongst the clouds, and a perpetual storm esconced the parapets. A long
 causeway
 stretched out from far below, and up it marched the US army. Something about
 Hitler striking a deal with dracula or whatever. Anyway up march the soldiers,
 and I with my rifle did march into the demon's castle.
 
 The final pass into the fortress at last was arrested by Festus, the abolethic
 monstrosity. It, being pockmarked with gas pockets that alighted it on the
 winds, floated ominously around the bridge. With it's many tentacled eyes, it
 cast beams of light that would turn a man to ash. From the parapets, the
 gargoyle sentries descended like a horde of carrion. On our right, a lone
 lonely belltower stood like a skeleton, and my comrades in arms did use it to
 take potshots at incoming monsters. Though the attached graveyard, with it's
 unending rising skeleton hordes, presented a problem for would-be-snipers.
 
 As I approached the bleeding and wretched giant's ire, my gaze streaked to
 black as I was slain - a recording played, of my last moments, as a gargoyle
 smashed into me from above. Reduced to a bloody mess by the now motionless pile
 of crumbling rock, I became aware of a kind voice and a pulling sensation.
 Suddenly, my light was restored, and I arose as a warrior conjured out of
 flesh.
 
 They put a gun in my hand and a helmet on my head, and off I went to find out
 why I was dead.
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--- #191 fediverse/1069 ---
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 there was a time, when a university was tantamount to heresy
 
 ======================= stack overflow =====================
 
 Magic Survival is the witchiest game I know of.
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--- #192 fediverse/3637 ---
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 ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: politics-housing-crisis │
 └─────────────────────────────────┘


 @user-1074 
 
 you can't start a game of chess with a checkmate. you're not wrong on the
 goal, but the timing would only be possible if a significant amount of other
 unnamed "effects" were in play. Or rather, if a whole lot of other conditions
 were made to be true.
 
 I find the best strategies are the ones that rely the least on externalities
 and potentialities. Fewer points of failure, smaller attack surfaces.
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--- #193 fediverse/3039 ---
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 @user-570 
 
 I'd LOVE a game which taught toki pona!!
 
 You've brought some of this up before. I'm uninterested in co-opting some
 existing thing in a way I then can't support myself off of.
 
 Well my points are these:
 
 MMOs are difficult because of the added complexity in their networking
 
 an open source networking solution exists
 
 however no open source client solution exists
 
 but one could be written, which is about as hard as making a game using Bevy
 or Raylib or Love2D, and if one were written, then games could easily be made
 on-top of them which you would then support yourself off of. I mean... I'd
 want to support myself too haha, and I can think of like 100 different games
 that could be made in an engine like that.
 
 the idea is that by opening up more design space you can apply your ideas as
 an early pioneer in a particular design direction that hasn't been able to be
 explored because the up-front investments in making an MMO are huge.
 
 Meanwhile, with this system you could script them in Lua very easily.
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--- #194 fediverse/5915 ---
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 washing dishes without a dishwasher is a pain in the neck.
 
 nobody cuts down trees with an axe anymore, a chainsaw is better for your back.
 
 It's nice, fun, and helpful to be able to abstract away your spheres of concern
 
 like typing with a single button instead of writing characters with multiple
 brushstrokes. Easy to erase, too!
 
 bikes are better than walking, but, with some extra concerns. where are ya
 gonna put it when you get there?
 
 "oh no I forgot how to walk because texting my girlfriend is bicycling or
 something" what? oh dear, she's run off track again, let's pick her up and put
 her upright again..:
 
 oh huh weird where was I - oh yes computer code can often be impenetrable to
 the layperson, but if you describe a program in complete detail in english
 they can usually follow along. Especially if you have several layers of
 meta-descriptional documents so they can say "oh uh-huh so that's what a
 vector_implementation_container is, tell me more about combinatrix" or
 whatever ppl say, idk
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--- #195 fediverse/5780 ---
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: scary-dark-circle-magic-is-totally-not-my-vibe-I'm-more-like-a- │
 └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘


 game idea:
 
 factorio clone except it's actually an IDE
 
 double click a "factory" building and you can open up a script window. Just
 enough room for a function or three, don't go off-screen...
 
 then, draw as many conveyor belts as you want. They have to be conveyors, and
 they can only dive under [num_belt_passthrough] other conveyor belts at a
 time. By forcing the player to structure their code linearly and laterally,
 they can see it with a more comprehensive [scope, but pronounced hope].
 
 could also have a neat visualizer for the data structures you'd build.
 
 [highly recommend that any programmer learn Lua, it's faster than you know]
 
 I name my variables after objects and patterns and I think that's normal
could also have a neat visualizer for the data structures you'd build.  I'm thinking of Lua tables which are really just nested JSON in disguise. Anyway picture a game of tetris where each block was a piece of data. Then, imagine scrolling left/right by "flipping through record albums in a jukebox" motioning while each non-center piece was sorta half-transparent. each "panel" is another json lvl  truly, the only way to know which prayers are real is to try praying to each and every god at least once or twice.  [problem is, there's so many of them] Image attachment I name my variables after objects and patterns and I think that's normal  a sword is but a breadknife in a longbow fight you see, gotta bring a shield for it. [lessons taught to the Uruk-Hai]  "ugh I don't wanna carry this with me" well that's okay you can switch off, just keep running yeah?  ... anyway, as I was saying  -- stack overflow -- I name my variables after objects and patterns and I think that's normal  I'm just a person, which is why I will never know how many effigies were burned, how many offerings done in solace and harm, for she sees only her eyeballs and trends towards her own proclivities.  I legitimately feel like it is a duty to report on what I see, but I'm also trying to not -- stack overflow
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--- #196 fediverse/886 ---
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 ┌──────────────────────┐
 │ CW: witchery         │
 └──────────────────────┘


 if you want to win when confronting a spirit, all you have to do is convince
 it that you've beaten it.
 
 as long as you're persistent then you're fine. Unless, of course, there's a
 beast of a man hiding behind the illusion, in which case you should do your
 best to avoid being stabbed or whatever.
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--- #197 fediverse/3042 ---
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 left stick is grab a target and bring it into context, right stick is for
 drawing a pointer, a to group things together and b is to separate, etc etc
 
 --
 
 I remember coding it to be designed around two dimensional arrays. It used
 lateral numbers, AKA "imaginary" numbers (they aren't imaginary they're just
 orthogonal to regular numbers - hence, lateral)
 
 and like... the math worked, and it was all on a T9 keyboard.
 
 I figure each memory location would be like, a function written in the
 program, or perhaps a binary or script file in a nearby directory. by writing
 a value to a certain coordinate, you are giving an input value to a function.
 
 and if nothing is stored for that particular coordinate, then the command
 fails to execute and nothing happens.
 
 pointers to functions which may or may not exist.
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--- #198 fediverse/2530 ---
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 I want to go out on the town with my cute friends and wink at boys at the        │
 other end of the bar                                                             │
 I want to climb mountains and see how far I can see, while walking past trees    │
 that are new to me                                                               │
 I want to spend hours thinking about a map while my friends plot behind my       │
 back, searching for an advantage we can use to succeed in a game of traps        │
 I want to visit five different restaurants in a day, and try a bit of each       │
 that the chef wants to display                                                   │
 I want to stand in a choir and feel my soul aspire, to bend in the wind of       │
 rhythm like the melody of grasses at play                                        │
 I want to see people on the train that I know from somewhere, and to step out    │
 into the rain to meet new friends of mine                                        │
 I want to pet a cat I've never met.                                              │
 I want to build computers that are larger than a room but small enough to        │
 carry, with thoughts on their mind that are far to great for mine                │
 I want all these these things and more, but I'm far too busy these days.         │
 Perhaps I've had enough of these things and more, or perhaps there's more in     │
 store.                                                                           │
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--- #199 fediverse/1990 ---
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────┐
 When my family would go on roadtrips, I'd hide under a blanket in the front      │
 seat with my laptop and power inverter just to hide from the glare.              │
 My mom would play audiobooks, usually fantasy stories, and my sisters would      │
 watch their portable TVs. Like, dvd players that you could carry on top of       │
 your lap. Not laptops, but little purpose-built devices primarily intended to    │
 be used to watch DVDs, or rather movie files that were printed on a disk.        │
 And yes, it's disk, not disc, thanks for asking.                                 │
 anyway it was pretty nice I have fond memories of jugging a gas-station snack    │
 while also swapping circular cartridges - most games required the game's CD to   │
 be inserted in order to play the game.                                           │
 which is just... a nonsensical restriction if you think about it hard enough.    │
 I mean, like, can you imagine if you needed to insert your windows disk          │
 anytime you wanted your computer to turn on? Just... write the disk              │
 information! To disc! Save it so that you never need the crude piece of          │
 plastic again! Then pass it to your fr                                           │
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--- #200 notes/how-little-we-find ---
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 how little we find of thoughts from her mind
 yet now we are kings of our own time
 oh how she is wander true
 
 DEAR VR DESIGNERS:
 
 when making trailers for your game, create a separate camera in the game engine
 and record from that.
 
 keep the player character invisible, but just... watch from a distance
 
 like they're an actor in a scene
 
 ummmm oh dear she's crazy, what the heck
 
 [no this is just what it's like to see stars]
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