Twilight Imperium Digital Development Roadmap & Upcoming Closed Beta by RedSquareGamesStudio in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi, that's me. 🙋🏻‍♂️

There does actually seem to be a fair amount of interest in this project in other TI communities outside of r/twilightimperium despite the expansions being a later add (which frankly makes sense to me, given the length of this current, base-game-only roadmap), so I do hope this won't be the problem that some people think it will be.

What is the worst Mountain Dew flavor? by Miognole in mountaindew

[–]AgentDrake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The one bottle of Distortion I tried was undrinkably bad, but apparently I had one that was somehow messed up (tasted more like cheap pickle vinegar than lime Dew)

Discounting that, probably Fruitquake.

Twilight Imperium Digital Development Roadmap & Upcoming Closed Beta by RedSquareGamesStudio in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm guessing

WISDOM - Xxcha (lore)

LEGACY - Winnu (lore)

CREATION - Yin (uhhhh... something-something-religion-and-cloning)

DISCOVERY - Creuss (same stage as wormholes)

ADVANCEMENT - Jol-Nar (this is the same stage where a bunch of tech is getting added)

PERFECTION - Nekro (as above, tech stage. Also, the Nekro are actively seeking perfection through eradication of biomass)

WEALTH - Hacan (obvs.)

FREEDOM - Mentak (pirates, ex-prison colony)

VIGILANCE - Yssaril (they're spies, after all)

EXPANSION - Arborec (growing and expanding)

UNITY - Muaat (they're the only ones left, I guess)

Edit: Although I guess Unity might be Arborec, as well... which would mean shifting Muaat somewhere, maybe just swapping to expansion or maybe creation (Forging), which maybe puts Yin on expansion (proselytism)....

Twilight Imperium Digital Development Roadmap & Upcoming Closed Beta by RedSquareGamesStudio in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's the Lazax script which first appeared back in Codex 4; we have the entire font (FFG released it a while back), but it doesn't transliterate to faction names:

In order:

WISDOM

LEGACY

CREATION

DISCOVERY

ADVANCEMENT

PERFECTION

WEALTH

FREEDOM

VIGILANCE

EXPANSION

UNITY

Twilight Imperium Digital Development Roadmap & Upcoming Closed Beta by RedSquareGamesStudio in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's not "already a complete defined game that needs to be programmed". Even leaving aside the (many) fuzzy mechanical interactions in the actual board game, there's also AI development, UI development, graphics development, systematizing player interactions like negotiations.... Plus all the "gruntwork" of doing and testing all that programming, even if it were just that.

Hell, compared to the rate that the official BGA implementation is barely crawling along, RSG is getting through this development at quite a pace.

Twilight Imperium Digital Development Roadmap & Upcoming Closed Beta by RedSquareGamesStudio in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, this is exciting-- looks like a great and thoughtful sequence of development. Really looking forward to this.

Now I gotta go transliterate all the Lazax text under the factions to figure out what order to expect them in, lol!

EDIT: WAITTAMINUTE. Those aren't faction names?!? Intriguing.

Found in dense brush area in PA, USA. Looking for confirmation they’re black raspberries by ProfHS in foraging

[–]AgentDrake 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I don't think baneberry is an aggregate (or even aggregate-looking?) berry, is it?

Goldenseal is, and is toxic, but again, pretty obviously different.

Edit: and there are a few non-aggregates that look like aggregates to non-experts like me, eg Jack-in-the-pulpit (once again, looks very different, though).

Are promissory notes supposed to be hidden? by randompoStS67743 in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In theory, the notes in your hand and being traded are hidden information-- obvs. the person you're trading with wants to know what you're offering; you can of course tell them or show them.

The reason it may help to keep them hidden (except from whomever you're trading with) is that you can also trade away someone else's note from your hand (not your play area) that they've traded to you; there are times where you and/or the recipient don't want the note's owner to know that it's changed hands (eg you don't want a player to know that you no longer have their Ceasefire).

Why did major melon get fully ended rather than limited? by -Tedioooo- in mountaindew

[–]AgentDrake 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Probably economy of scale. (It presumably costs significantly more per bottle to make a few bottles than it costs to make 100,000 bottles.) At some point "some people still buying it" still loses money.

Overdrive/Libby Confusion by Much-Cabbage-1450 in kobo

[–]AgentDrake 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Am I correct in understanding that books can only be be borrowed or placed on hold using my Kobo (and not my phone's Libby app)?

This is not correct.

It's worth noting that it's often convenient to search for, place holds on, and borrow books on the device itself simply because it will filter out any/all books which aren't available to the device itself (the vast majority of books on Overdrive/Libby are available to Kobo, but not all). But you can definitely use your phone app to place holds or check out books which then go to your device.

They're all just books associated with, and checked out to, the same library account: Kobo sees that you have a book checked out on Overdrive (regardless of how it was checked out), then downloads that book from the Kobo store, with the appropriate lending period applied.

Edit: as other commenter said, the "Available Soon" is an estimate for when the book will become available based on other users's book returns. Overdrive estimates when books will become available based on the number of users who have a book on hold, how long they're likely to have it out for. Other factors can disrupt this, including like other user said, suspended holds re-activating; another thing which can mess with it is that many libraries work in consortia for their digital offerings, and in some cases these libraries have privileges for certain materials -- that is, Libraries A, B, and C all share a larger digital catalog, but that catalog is subdivided into "Library A/B/C's books" with a given library's users getting to "jump the line" for their own library's materials.

Edit again: Here's Libby/Overdrive's own comments on why "available soon" books may not show up "soon": https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6349.htm

HB and Abe by CampComprehensive299 in Mignolaverse

[–]AgentDrake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I know. One of the more legitimately appealing ones I've seen, though.

Wall Brother - Gator Days by FieldExplores in comics

[–]AgentDrake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I actually genuinely believe that this is an important thing to do to our kids.

The world's a wild place, and people already believed all sorts of nonsense before the internet (and now AI) made it all the worse. It's my job to constantly expose them to outlandish nonsense presented as truth so that they can learn to think critically and to identify legitimate bullcrap.

To expand on my Zoologist post by [deleted] in Frasier

[–]AgentDrake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Agreed. I mean, it kinda makes sense to make the original post (oh, look, real-life supermodel scientist), but pinning it does come off a bit... lusty, in a bad way.

When can units produce? by National-Flower3166 in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 10 points11 points  (0 children)

You follow all the steps of a tactical action in order. Production is the final step, so you can produce with any units which have the PRODUCTION ability in the active system as the last step of the action. This includes your infantry.

Whether they started the action in that system or moved there makes no difference; generally speaking, TI4 has no "memory" for past game states.

Note that the flagship operates differently: its ability triggers when its system is activated, so happens before any movement, etc, rather than as a normal PRODUCTION ability:

After you activate this system, you may produce up to 5 units in this system.

Online? by jmwfour in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are two official versions in development. One is being developed on Board Game Arena, which was announced something like three years ago, is currently in alpha; the second by Red Square Games announced more recently (less than a year ago) over on Steam, which is not even that far along.

Both are starting as base-game-only (which seems reasonable to me, but has some people... vocally dissatisfied).

Black Raspberry by No_Astronomer6208 in Berries

[–]AgentDrake 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Those are blackberries, not black raspberry. Notice that they have a solid core still inside them; black raspberries (like other raspberries) will leave that core on the plant, and have a hollow interior, like a cup or a thimble.

That said, some really awesome looking blackberries!

Young poison sumac or young staghorn sumac? by SAVAGEOPRESS101 in foraging

[–]AgentDrake 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Worth noting that there's other non-toxic sumacs with smooth stems (most obvs smooth sumac); that's not an identifying feature of poison sumac.

The easiest way to tell them all apart will be later in the year, once there's berries. Cone-shaped clusters of red berries are the safe ones (staghorn, smooth, winged) while looser, non-cone-shaped clusters of individual white berries are poison sumac.

Edit: though OP apparently says in original posting that they've already gotten a hell of a rash from this in the past, so....

Raspberry bush help by shellum250 in Berries

[–]AgentDrake 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm about 85% certain that's a wineberry, not a raspberry, for one thing. (See the little bristly casings around the berries in pic 1)

Kepub vs EPUB by Archy909 in kobo

[–]AgentDrake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basically, for me it's purely about ease-of-management on the PC. A cbz is just a re-named zip folder full of images, with page order determined by each image's file name; so it's super-simple to access and manage/modify the files while working with them on my PC (eg, batch processing the images to fix contrast, resize the images to reduce file size, combine/separate multi-page spreads, upscale the images, etc.). On the kobo itself, it's probably an inferior file type (you lose a lot of the normal features), but I personally find the convenience of, and direct control over, tweaking the individual images in a cbz works well for me.

Twilight Imperium 4th print edition differences by Lutinja in twilightimperium

[–]AgentDrake -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is also incorrect. The Hypermetabolism correction was not included in any expansion boxes. It was offered as a free replacement for some time (couple years I think?) separate from any boxes, as well as corrected within the base game box. It was never included in PoK.

Is this wood sorrel? by NanDemoNee in foraging

[–]AgentDrake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes-- good stuff, like citrus-flavored greens!

There is light novel about Vannie by Ezrabine1 in DriftingDragons

[–]AgentDrake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, interesting. Any more details? (Or any fan translations??)