Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

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Comments

  • Look, there is no reason a game should be as big as 13 gigabytes, considering what was possible with megabytes and kilobytes in the past, and the fact that advances in technology mean you should be able to do more with less space.

    I'm not installing a 100 gigabyte game, even on a spiffy semi-new hand-me-down 300 gigabyte computer, unless it is equal in quality, effort, and fun to all the games I could install with that space.

    Learn to compress and optimize, developers.
  • Yeah I'm definitely put off games having giant filesizes.

    I can tolerate games being over 10 GB, to some extent, due to the larger hard drive sizes these days, but even doing any file operations with them is burdensome.  Even with a fast internet connection.

    Then there are behemoths clocking in at 25 GB and over...
  • On the one hand, I finally have a computer that can run Cities: Skylines.

    On the other hand, I now have a computer than can barely run Cities: Skylines, with four-minute loading times, crashes, and freezes.  Also, it turns out it's a Paradox game, which means most of it is in DLC, and WHY THE HECK WOULD ANYBODY EVER DESIGN A CITY WITH ROADS THAT AREN'T EAST-WEST OR SOUTH-NORTH ORIENTED, ROADS SHOULD ONLY EVER MEET AT 90 DEGREES and also NO CHURCH BUILDINGS SEEM TO EXIST IN THE GAME HOW AM I GOING TO MAKE MY HOME TOWN.
  • Also lol at my own incompetence the first city I got to 2000 people I ran into bankruptcy because I couldn't pay off the interest on the loans I took out to pay for my brilliant budgeting plan of <meeting every need and treating "access to parks" as something just as necessary as "access to water">.

    Also apparently in this game buildings can become abandoned, and I can designate buildings as historical buildings, so of course any building that becomes abandoned will become a historical site so that nobody can demolish it because I MISS THE ABANDONED K-MART. 
  • does Cities: Skylines have a sandbox mode where you can just build whatever wherever and don't have to care about things like budget constraints?

    Mini Metro has a thing like this, which it calls "Creative Mode".
  • I don’t think it has such a thing, sadly. Maybe in a DLC.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    There actually is an unlimited money option. It's under the "Mods" menu in the settings, but it's installed by default.
  • edited 2023-02-17 18:06:17
    So, this game contains an option to legalize controlled substances.  Forget this, I'm uninstalling and playing Caesar III again.

    I'm kidding, I'm kidding, the fact that it's an option means I have the ability to NOT do it, which means I can make a meaningful choice and I appreciate that; I'm uninstalling because the game makes the computer freeze (probably because this computer has a GeForce 710).
  • I like the ability to set buildings as historical and thus prevent them from changing in appearance when they level up.  I also really like the visual variety of housing, both in design/size and color (houses-that-have-the-same-design-but-differently-colored-roofs is a small thing, but it adds a lot of character).

    Deleting the city's connections to the highway feels like deleting the swimming pool ladder in The Sims.

    Yeah, I'm going to enjoy Skylines in years to come.
  • edited 2023-02-20 10:31:22
    Maybe it’s just me, but the Max Stirner quotes I’ve read are unnerving like a villain monologue, dude gives me the Johan Liebert creeps.

    The idea of self that he expresses is so alien to me as to be threatening and distressing on multiple levels.
  • Makima is listening....
    Ali_Roz said:

    4:  If I capture a villain's laptop, I WILL NOT plug it into a local network, no matter how "Secure" the resident tech-genius says it is.

    Pshhh. Honestly, it's like no one trusts anyone anymore.
  • Makima is listening....
    On a marginally more serious note.
    Ali_Roz said:

    Maybe it’s just me, but the Max Stirner quotes I’ve read are unnerving like a villain monologue, dude gives me the Johan Liebert creeps.

    The idea of self that he expresses is so alien to me as to be threatening and distressing on multiple levels.



    Partly this is a function of how he is translated. But partly, I imagine it is also a demonstration on his part of what he somewhat-infamously terms a spook. ie. - if you think of what he's saying in those terms, you are being controlled by an outside will, something he finds intolerable.

    Frankly I think it's all pretty reasonable, but, well, you shouldn't listen to me.
  • But what if being controlled by your own will is intolerable?
  • edited 2023-02-22 17:39:18
    Makima is listening....
    Well, then there are many people who would be very much ready and able to make your decisions for you, if you were to let them.

    I would know, it's something of a personal specialty.
  • edited 2023-02-22 17:51:39
    People are, in my opinion, too flawed and fallible to be left in charge of things as infinitely precious as people.

    And yet, free will is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts to His children, and one the Adversary is always trying to take from us.

    Lucifer’s original rebellion against God was in opposing the idea of free agency, instead proposing a plan without agency where all would be saved and he (Lucifer) would be given the glory.

    I might not trust myself to be entirely in charge of me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let just anyone tell me what to do.
  • Makima is listening....
    Ali_Roz said:

    People are, in my opinion, too flawed and fallible to be left in charge of things as infinitely precious as people.

    On this, we agree. I would also not leave dogs in charge of dogs, fish in charge of fish, or so on, or so forth.
    Ali_Roz said:

    I might not trust myself to be entirely in charge of me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let just anyone tell me what to do.



    Well, that is a shame, but yours is not a rare opinion.

    Not directly related; "The Adversary" is a very particular term.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

    On a marginally more serious note.

    Ali_Roz said:

    Maybe it’s just me, but the Max Stirner quotes I’ve read are unnerving like a villain monologue, dude gives me the Johan Liebert creeps.

    The idea of self that he expresses is so alien to me as to be threatening and distressing on multiple levels.



    Partly this is a function of how he is translated. But partly, I imagine it is also a demonstration on his part of what he somewhat-infamously terms a spook. ie. - if you think of what he's saying in those terms, you are being controlled by an outside will, something he finds intolerable.

    Frankly I think it's all pretty reasonable, but, well, you shouldn't listen to me.

    Also, not to point out the obvious, but the bits Lenni’s been quoting are the most direct and provocative lines from the translation she’s reading, because those are the parts that resonate with her the most.

  • Aliroz Evil Scheme 246,375: Go back in time, kidnap Dmitri Shostakovich, threaten to make him forget his home country and have him make music for America, but then hostage-trade him to my Soviet counterpart who has stolen John Philip Sousa and made similar threats, and then collect the reward for restoring the proper timeline and run away so as to avoid being vaporized by Prokofiev's laser-eye-beam attack.
  • See, I can't just hire someone to un-vaporize me, because the residue from LASER EYE BEAM ATTACKS smells like leftways tachyons, so the Causality Dogs will bark loudly and upsetting the Causality Dogs NEVER ends well, and at that point you're better off not doing an evil scheme in the first place.
  • Prokofiev's laser-eye-beam attack

    things
  • Prokofiev's laser-eye-beam attack


    things
    EXPLAIN.
  • edited 2023-02-24 07:26:05
    Ali_Roz said:

    Prokofiev's laser-eye-beam attack


    things
    EXPLAIN.
    i was unable to come up with a better thing to say

    i was considering saying any of the following:
    * "this is a thing" (but it is not)
    * "Prokofiev would like this" (but i am not sure if he would)
    "this would be totally on-theme for him" (but i am not sure it would be)
    * "this would be amazing/cool" (but i am not sure it is amazing or cool, nor am i sure i want to endorse this)

    so instead i just said "things" because i, indeed, thought of things
  • Without getting into topics that I know too little about to write coherently on, I chose Prokofiev for that part of the wonderpost because 

    (1)  Shostakovich and Prokofiev are friends, so of course bullying Shostakovich would incur Prokofiev's ire.  

    (2)  Prokofiev is a very intense person, and was capable of great cruelty, and considering that some of the piano pieces he composed-and-also-played are such that only a few pianists in the entire world can play them properly, I'd vote him as "most likely of his generation of creatives to secretly be a terrifying superhuman".

    (3)  I don't really know any other composers that would fit for that bit in the wonderpost except Rachmaninoff, and the only superpower I would give Rachmaninoff in a wonderpost is GIANT GORILLA HANDS.
  • Pro Tip:  Any (video) game since, I don't know, 2017-or-so, which has the title format "X of Y" is not worth your time or attention (unless it's a sequel to an earlier work, in which case it might be).

    The once august title-form has fallen so far, it's truly sad.

    This might just be part of the decline of the medium, though, or even just me getting older and becomign more of a curmudgeon.
  • NOTABLE EXCEPTION:  The Age of Fear series is, while not worth the cost of the entire set (I recommend skipping Age of Fear II), quite good (from a "is it enjoyable", "is it well-made", or "is it a few changes from something I'd wholeheartedly recommend" standpoint).
  • Never be with0ut a Hat!
    (2010 self)
    Ali_Roz said:

    NOTABLE EXCEPTION:  The Age of Fear series is, while not worth the cost of the entire set (I recommend skipping Age of Fear II), quite good (from a "is it enjoyable", "is it well-made", or "is it a few changes from something I'd wholeheartedly recommend" standpoint).

    You're just saying that because you're a no-conscience sellout who enjoys icky adult games with swears and the "mature" rating like the Fallout games or Darkest Dungeon.
  • Hey, it's not like I'd let my hypothetical adoptive kids play such things, or any of the next generation.
  • ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    So, it's "Do as I say, not as I do"?  How hypocritical.
  • Well, no, I'm going to get rid of those games and pretend I never had them once the next generation gets old enough to operate a mouse and keyboard.
  • ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    You know, I'm going to try to enjoy these years where I'm old enough to be a "mature adult" and young enough to still see the appeal of eating all the sugar cookies in the box.

    2016 and on are going to be great years!
  • edited 2023-03-05 01:35:09
    Um... yeah, they are, well, I have nostalgia for those years at times.  Now shoo, selves!

    Amnyways,

    NON-DIAGETIC-NOTE: The (lost/inaccessible) lands of the swamp do, in fact, have a name distinct from that of Rozburg, the proper name for the heapkingdom/heapnation is Eysre, a reverse acronm for These Swampy Lands Over Here.
  • edited 2023-03-05 02:26:45
    ~The previous pages seem to be missing.~

    -ack when it was accessible, Eysre was remote and rarely visited by outsiders.  During the time of the last Konungr, Aliroz the Confused, contact-with-the-rest-of-the-world (which had slowly increased with each generation) declined into near-isolation.*

    In that story-form which a scholar might call "Fairy-Stories" there are places, like Saint Martin's Land, such that whatever is an exit to such is not an entrance (such has caused many headaches for mapmakers, logisticians, and people-of-well-ordered-mind).  Certain accounts (long rejected by both serious and silly academia) might well be understood as literal descriptions of actual truth, if we are but brave enough not to assume a uniformitarianism.

    It is with the desire of further understanding of what-was-once-home that this request for access to the relevant records is made.  This is

    ~The rest of the page is faded and illegible.~

    ~If there are more pages to this letter, they are not with this one.~
    *Non-Diagetic Note: Lol.
  • nearly entirely unrelated and irrelevant note: "Fairies Story" is the name of a fictional videogame series developed by the fictional company Eagle Jump in the anime series New Game!.  the first season is abou the development of the third game.
  • ~Like the other letter, the previous pages seem to be missing~

    uly sorry, but your request is one I simply can't grant.  The transit time alone is more than enough for the words to fade on the originals; and copies are even worse in this regard.  It's as though on this subject the written word, like the spoken word, resolves itself into blankness and silence...or would without constant preservationist effort.

    They heightened security here, but no security keeps out entropy.  ~the rest of the paragraph is illegible except for the last sentence~  I pray that these photographs maintain the text.

    If not... if not, then take comfort in what is now your home, and in the reality you inhabit.  Find the warm of the present and future, bask in that warmth.  The real legacy of ~illegible~ is you.

    ~The rest of the page is faded and illegible.~

    ~If there are more pages to this letter, they are not with this one.~
    *Non-Diagetic Note: Yes, I do like excerpts-from-in-universe-documents for worldbuilding. I especially like the control it gives me over what information the reader gets. No, the authors of in-universe documents are not generally characters I care to flesh out. Characters are the least fun-to-write part of stories. And no, I cannot write natural-sounding dialogue to save my life. And finally, no, I don't write stories, only snippets.
  • nearly entirely unrelated and irrelevant note: "Fairies Story" is the name of a fictional videogame series developed by the fictional company Eagle Jump in the anime series New Game!.  the first season is abou the development of the third game.

    It's likely a reference to the same Tolkein essay.
  • Alright, that's enough posting for today.

    RESURGAM.
  • edited 2023-03-06 03:47:09
    Ali_Roz said:

    Look, there is no reason a game should be as big as 13 gigabytes, considering what was possible with megabytes and kilobytes in the past, and the fact that advances in technology mean you should be able to do more with less space.


    I'm not installing a 100 gigabyte game, even on a spiffy semi-new hand-me-down 300 gigabyte computer, unless it is equal in quality, effort, and fun to all the games I could install with that space.

    Learn to compress and optimize, developers.
    Aaaaaaaaaaaand guess who now has a 100+ gigabyte game installed and is scared to play it.
  • edited 2023-03-07 18:10:51
    Aaaaaaaaaaaand guess who booted it up, realized it was multiplayer only, and immediately uninstalled it.

    Also I just realized that since Impossible Creatures came out in January 2003, it is over 20 years old.

    I'd be cheesed at Relic for making expansions and sequels to Company of Heroes (which nobody I know ever played or heard of) and Dawn of War (which was fun, but was probably a step in the path that leads from RTS to MOBA) while neglecting Impossible Creatures, but I can't be cheesed at the company that made Age of Empires IV.
  • The thing is, in life, it's important to sometimes have things to look forward to.  Sometimes the looking-forward-to-a-thing that can be worth as much or more than the experience-of-the-thing.

    The prospect of watching new Star Wars movies in the theater helped me get through some hard years.  I'm grateful for the new trilogy for that, no matter what problems it has in writing or characterization or story.  While I have no desire to watch them again (unlike the six I grew up with), I enjoyed seeing them in the theater.

    (Now don't tell people I look forward to things, it'll ruin my dread-cred and the kids won't believe you).
  • image

    Ah, scenario editors.  

    *happy Aliroz sounds*
  • 1. what game is this?

    2. is the floor lava?
  • 1: The game is Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns and it is a Star Wars game in the Age of Empires II engine  (Okay, Clone Campaigns is to Galactic Battlegrounds as The Conquerers is to Age of Kings, so you could say it's an expansion pack to a game rather than the game itself).  My brother got the cd for the game/expansion on the same day my family saw Finding Nemo in theaters, in one of the more memorable days of my childhood.

    2: The floor is lava.
  • It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "oh snap, how much of my personality and worldview came from this".
  • It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "oh snap, I don't remember teenage prostitutes being a(n implied) thing in this book."
  • It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "oh snap, how the heck did I miss so many of these puns what kind of idiot was I and how many more are there that I won't get until I'm older".
  • edited 2023-03-10 17:16:52
    It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "This character can't possibly be as bad as I remember, I was probably just too-NOPE IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN I REMEMBER" and wish you could punt fictional characters into the sun.
  • It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "Oh snap, The Lego Movie totally ripped off the romance from this except they actually made it charming and accomplished a kid version of the exact vibe this was going for if it wasn't, you know, abusive-in-ways-the-author-doesn't-seem-to-appreciate".
  • It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "back then, I thought this author deserved the same recognition and fandom that Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett have, and now I still think that except I refuse to read anything by Adams or Pratchett."
  • It's a feeling when you read a book you haven't read in a little under ten years and you're like "You're technically committing satire here, author, and verging on parody, so be glad that I'm too stupid to get most of it, and be glad that your absurdity-and-amazingly-long-setups-for-cascades-of-wordplay sense of humor is the exact 100% best sense of humor for doing comedy without activating my anti-comedy programming".
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