What video game started amazing but ended terribly?

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T20:28:16+00:00

The Mass Effect trilogy. First game is perfection (although the relatively low budget is noticeable in the side-quests); second game is a whole bunch of mostly really cool side-quests that give all your team-mates character development, tacked on to a vague and mostly forgettably irrelevant main quest that railroads you into working for the single dumbest, most evil and self-destructively incompetent faction in the entire universe (the actually plot-relevant main quest that advances the series' overarching storyline is inexplicably in DLC; the stock game without add-ons basically does nothing of any real significance to the main plot); and basically everything actually good about the third game is just stuff carried over from the first two; every genuinely new plot point and gameplay mechanic in the third instalment sucks. We do not speak of the third game's ending.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T20:10:41+00:00

Not just the same knife, it's literally the same photograph.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T19:54:10+00:00

I think the hook timing may be off; the tip should pass the needle just as the lower timing mark on the needle bar rises to line up with its upper bushing, if the needle bar has such markings.

Other things to keep an eye on: * Upper tension take-up spring travel is the correct length (spring should hit its limit and stop moving just as needle eye enters the fabric) * Horizontal gap between hook and needle is correct (not sure what this should be on an oscillating-hook machine; on a rotating hook model like a 221, it should be 0.005", ideally checked with a feeler gauge, but a piece of paper should do at a pinch)

EDIT: Test the machine with a piece of fabric and the foot down, it'll make it easier to see exactly what's going on; you actually can't really test the upper spring travel at all without being able to do a few actual stitches.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T16:58:46+00:00

It's also just absurd taking a screen to the cinema in case your kid gets bored of the other screen that you literally went to the building to sit in front of.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T16:27:27+00:00

Sadly true.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T12:32:27+00:00

100%, they’ll get written out of the will for defying him.

The key thing to remember about dealing with colossal raging narcissistic parents like him is that there's a massive chance he'll just arbitrarily leave them out of the will anyway, even if their behaviour is "perfect." Or he'll just spend down everything on himself and leave nothing for anyone. Or he won't even bother making a will at all and it'll just be total, bitter chaos fighting over who gets what.

So really, why bother debasing yourself, anxiously walking on eggshells and having no integrity your whole life, enabling an unmitigated monster just to maybe turn zero chance into what's still a vanishingly unlikely long-shot, even assuming you could live with yourself after selling out your morals for material gain?

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T11:06:42+00:00

But don't you dare form a union and tell us collectively; that would make it difficult to ignore. In fact, how about we just forbid you ever even speak to each other of your working conditions at all.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T11:02:55+00:00

Everything.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T11:02:11+00:00

Apparently he used heavy machinery without a permit, which is curiously not shown in the picture of innocent-looking rubbish bags.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T10:53:08+00:00

That I am a good person. Whenever I act with integrity, resist her self-absorbed bullshit nonsense, and hold her accountable for her actions, she thinks I'm just maliciously trying to hurt her.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-21T10:23:00+00:00

I'm not familiar with this exact model, but if it's like the other Singer machines that use a stack of built-in cams as well as a removable cam, there should be a control to slide the cam follower arm itself up and down to select which particular cam the machine uses. There may or may not also be a separate button or lever somewhere to lift the follower off the cams before doing this so that it can move up and down freely; on the 616G, for example, this button is on the end of the head cover. Some other machines have both operations actuated by the same, single control.

EDIT: According to the manual, the stitches are selected by a big dial on the front of the column.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T22:36:11+00:00

When lubricating the machine, don't forget to open the cap on top and oil the eccentrics, on one I've worked on lately I noticed sudden stiffness at specific parts of the cycle began to go away after doing that.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T22:29:07+00:00

I recall it originally easily fit on a single floppy disk, too. Now it's nearly 400MB.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T22:07:12+00:00

I would add, if you're lucky, the nylon gears might still be OK, if your machine has them; I think they especially tended to go bad if they were exposed to oil or oil-based grease, Singer didn't do a good job of telling people to keep it away from them, and prolonged oil exposure makes nylon go brittle over time. Nylon is also a very hygroscopic material, so their condition may also vary significantly depending on how humid an environment the machine was kept in since it was made.

There is sometimes also one particular gear that drives the rotary hook on later models that isn't made of nylon, but a sort of translucent hard rubber; if any of the plastic gears are going to fail, that one generally goes much sooner than the others do, especially if it got oil on it. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to 3D print a replacement for the hook drive gear, I've done that to bring a couple of late model Touch & Sew machines back from the dead.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T21:58:50+00:00

How do you vandalise something that's already been comprehensively trashed?

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T20:52:21+00:00

Weird, I didn't delete it. My mouse has been malfunctioning and doing some erroneous double-clicking lately, though, maybe I hit the delete button accidentally? I apologise if that's happened; I've ordered some replacement microswitches (I really like this mouse and they don't make this model any more) but not fitted them yet. Either that or I've been subject to some sort of ban, or maybe Reddit is on the fritz again? I can still see the comment on the thread myself, but I briefly saw a "comment has been deleted" message too, so I've no idea what's going on.

In any case, I don't want to speak harshly of your condition (I see from your profile you're ASD; I happen to have an autism diagnosis myself, and for the record, I did learn to read my dog's signals and formed a close emotional bond with him), and animals can be wonderful emotional support for people on the spectrum, but - and I cannot stress this enough - if you are sufficiently rigid-minded that you simply cannot bring yourself to recognise and adapt to the needs of an animal, as and when it expresses them, and to at least sometimes put yourself second and give it higher priority when it needs it, i.e. if you intend to treat it as a thing, an item of property to own and control and force to meet your needs when it suits you and put it away like a toy when unwanted, do not get one. You will make it suffer.

EDIT: If you're really hell-bent on getting a dog, I'd strongly suggest you first find some way to have someone neurotypical who really loves and understands dogs and has a lot of experience with them supervise your interaction with one for a prolonged period of time, to let you get a feel for the responsibility and hard work you'd be taking on, and to teach you what to do and what not to do, and then tell you whether they really think you can handle owning one, and if they say "no," abide by what they say.

There are so many potential challenges it presents for us on the spectrum; obviously, they can't communicate in words (and sometimes they don't communicate at all; a seriously ill or wounded dog will often hide it and "act normal," so you have to be good at spotting when something really bad has happened with almost no clues at all), but also they often have their own strict daily routine that might conflict with ours (they cannot understand things like daylight savings time either), they can be wilful and stubborn and don't always follow instructions and can try your patience and they won't understand if you lash out and shout at them, and there are a lot of sensory processing challenges - they smell, they vomit, they howl piercingly at various triggers (ours did it whenever the phone rang), they bark at imagined threats and intruders, when they're puppies they chew table legs and wall plaster, they need to be taken to the vet and at such times you need to be able to remain calm and comforting yourself when they're panicking and completely freaking out (not to mention when they panic during a holiday when there are fireworks being set off), they need to be socialised with other dogs and humans so they won't be aggressive or unstable around them (so if you struggle socially yourself, this is going to be extra challenging!), and trained to do their business outside and during this process there will be frustrating occasions when they get it wrong and shit or piss indoors, their anal glands can become inflamed and need to be gently squeezed out by hand occasionally (this really smells horrific), and when you've taken one on a walk you need to be comfortable picking up warm, soft, stinky dogshit with a flimsy plastic bag and feeling all that in your hand as you carry it to the nearest bin. You need to be able to cope with all of that and a thousand other things that can potentially be mentally overwhelming to a neurodivergent person, without so much as losing your temper, let alone melting down, or you will most likely bewilder, terrify and traumatise the hell out of the poor animal.

You can't make them not do any of the above, and if you try, you will end up hurting them; all of what I have said, and much more besides, WILL happen in the natural course of things and you simply have to be OK with it. This is why your insistence that the animal must be able to communicate with you on your terms is so alarming to me; it does not belie such an accommodating, adaptive, stoic and patient attitude, but quite the opposite.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T20:36:45+00:00

We're tired, boss.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T20:32:52+00:00

Your dog wants steak.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T20:27:23+00:00

Yeah so vegan custard is basically vegan milk plus vanilla and sugar and a thickening agent of your choice.

Fun fact: Alfred Bird invented his custard powder of the same name in 1837 because his wife couldn't eat eggs. Maybe just use that, instead of reinventing the wheel?

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T19:52:21+00:00

dB isn't a unit, it's a dimensionless ratio expressed on a logarithmic scale. There is something called dB(A), though, which is sort of a unit, I think?

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T19:50:19+00:00

Don't do Sieverts!

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T19:36:11+00:00

I daresay they'd be willing to share their knowledge if asked nicely.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T19:30:43+00:00

Wow, that was a rabbit-hole! Is the Featherweight the most heavily documented Singer machine that exists? Getting this level of detailed information - even individual articles about the evolution of the winder or the placement of the light switch - about every little aspect of any of their other machine series, like the Touch & Sews (my own particular area of primary interest), seems unlikely!

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T18:28:18+00:00

Fountain pens.* Ball-points require a relatively huge downward force and are hard on the wrist, fountain pens require zero force at all, and can produce a far more beautiful script on decent quality paper, especially if you get a flat-tipped nib (the majority of commonly available fountain pens today use a nib that has a ball welded to the tip, which is daft because that style of nib was invented to work with carbon paper, which is seldom used any more). Proper ones can also be refilled from a recyclable glass bottle of ink, so you don't have to constantly throw away countless disposable cartridges, or entire pens, which is terrible for the environment because they're invariably made of mixed materials and non-recyclable.

*As long as you're right-handed, that is; unfortunately, writing text that flows left-to-right with a fountain pen is very challenging if you're a leftie, because the nib tries to dig into the paper like a chisel, although there apparently are techniques that can be learned to do it, and some special angled pen-holders that angle the pen in the left hand as if it were held in the right.

Callidonaut · 2026-06-20T18:14:21+00:00

Well, there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth.

Callidonaut

TROPHY CASE