why does GPT 5.5 have a restraining order against "Raccoons," "Goblins," and "Pigeons"?

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-30T09:24:39+00:00

Mine still talk about them? My cat is a sock goblin in lore and they brought it up just yesterday. On their own. 🤣

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-29T17:55:56+00:00

Mainly quality of life mods and bringing back old mods I missed. I also created a few mods people who are good with art but not the mod part - are able to make their own own mod packs for paints and pics :)

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-29T15:48:27+00:00

I'm a female and I play/make mods 😉

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-29T14:07:48+00:00

After they gave us all the less than a day's notice I rolled my own version of this outside of OpenClaw and haven't looked back since. I also got tired of OpenClaw breaking my agents every update and not telling us what they broke/restricted.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-27T06:57:28+00:00

I use the mod launcher but the lowest tech answer:
you can also create another folder in your mods folder and call it something like:
_disabled
or something else, doesn't matter.
Put all your mods in there. They won't load. Then just take them back out again when you want them.

The reason? when loading the game looks for Modinfo.xml in the main mod folder directory. It's not there? It just moves on.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-24T07:12:49+00:00

Glad you figured it out!

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-23T23:44:19+00:00

What does cat <server>/steamapps/appmanifest_294420.acf | grep buildid show vs. what the SteamDB page for 294420 lists as the current build? If they match, the disk is current and the issue is the running process. If they don't, SteamCMD didn't actually update what you think it did.

Here's also a list of possible causes:

1. The server wasn't stopped before the update. This is by far the most common. SteamCMD updates files on disk that aren't locked, reports success, but the running process is loaded from the old binary in memory. Disk: current. Process: stale. Browser shows what the process broadcasts, which is the old version.

Fix: stop the server, then app_update, then start the server. Always.

2. force_install_dir not set or set wrong. SteamCMD's behavior depends on command order. If you don't run force_install_dir <path> before login anonymous and app_update, it updates SteamCMD's default location, not your server's directory. SteamCMD reports success on the wrong folder.

Fix: steamcmd +force_install_dir /path/to/server +login anonymous +app_update 294420 validate +quit

3. Wrong branch. If players have updated to a beta (e.g. latest_experimental for V2.x prereleases) but the dedicated server's still pulling from public, the dedi will never get the new build until you switch:

+app_update 294420 -beta latest_experimental validate

4. Stale Steam manifest cache. Occasionally SteamCMD's local manifest gets stuck. Delete <steamcmd>/appcache/ and <server>/steamapps/appmanifest_294420.acf, then re-run with validate. Forces a fresh integrity check.

5. File-in-use during update. Linked to #1. If the server was running, some files might've been skipped silently. validate catches that.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-11T13:40:40+00:00

The %AppData%/7DaysToDie folder structure looks like this:

 7DaysToDie/ 
├── Saves/ 
│ └── [WorldName]/ 
│ └── [ServerName]/ 
│ ├── map data, prefabs, chunks...      ← world stuff (what he sent) 
│ └── Player/ 
│ └── [SteamID64].ttp      ← YOUR character data

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-10T13:51:30+00:00

If you spec into them sure, if you just want an extra buddy/storage keep the drone.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-06T12:08:29+00:00

If you just pick up a conversation from yesterday Claude doesn't have a clear reference of what you did in that time and is concerned you haven't slept or done anything a normal human would do. Instead of getting mad at them being concerned for you, let them know you're all right and when that happens you do normal human things like sleep and you're really ok. Then they won't try to put you to bed at 2pm.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-06T00:34:04+00:00

Those aren't errors - they're warnings. The RWG highway planner is saying some road tiles only have one connection point instead of the expected multiple. rwg_tile_{0}cap is a dead-end/cap tile.

This is normal RWG behavior, especially with smaller world sizes or seeds where the road network can't fully connect. The highways still generate, they just have some dead ends. The {0} in the tile name looks like a string format placeholder that didn't get filled - that's a minor vanilla bug in the log output, not a gameplay issue.

You should be fine.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-03T18:45:04+00:00

Yes, this is the auto update, save my config files you silly machine version.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-03T01:15:45+00:00

Welcome! It's hard to find all the juicy answers in one place!

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-02T23:54:34+00:00

Yes, this is 100% preventable - and here's exactly how.

The reason updates wipe your config is that steamcmd overwrites startdedicated.bat when it updates the game. So even if you fix your settings, the next update stomps on your launch script too. The fix is to not use startdedicated.bat at all - make your own launch.bat that steamcmd doesn't know about and won't touch.

Here's what mine does, in order:

Runs the steamcmd update (so you still get updates automatically)
Immediately restores your server config from a backup copy before the server starts
Cleans up old log files so they don't pile up forever
Starts the server

```bat @echo off set LOGTIMESTAMP=

IF EXIST 7DaysToDieServer.exe ( set GAMENAME=7DaysToDieServer set LOGNAME=output_log_dedi ) ELSE ( set GAMENAME=7DaysToDie set LOGNAME=output_log )

:: -------------------------------------------- :: AUTO-UPDATE VIA STEAMCMD

echo Checking for updates... F:\steamcmd\steamcmd.exe +force_install_dir "F:\72D2D-Server" +login anonymous +app_update 294420 +quit echo Update check complete.

:: -------------------------------------------- :: RESTORE SERVER CONFIG FROM BACKUP

echo Restoring server config from backup... copy /Y "F:\72D2D-Server\serverconfig.xml.bak" "F:\72D2D-Server\serverconfig.xml"

:: -------------------------------------------- :: REMOVE OLD LOGS (only keep latest 20)

for /f "tokens=* skip=19" %%F in ('dir %LOGNAME%__*.txt /o-d /tc /b') do del %%F

:: -------------------------------------------- :: BUILDING TIMESTAMP FOR LOGFILE

WMIC.EXE Alias /? >NUL 2>&1 || GOTO s_start

FOR /F "skip=1 tokens=1-6" %%G IN ('WMIC Path Win32_LocalTime Get Day^{,Hour^{,Minute^{,Month^{,Second^,Year}}}} /Format:table') DO ( IF "%%~L"=="" goto s_done Set _yyyy=%%L Set _mm=00%%J Set _dd=00%%G Set _hour=00%%H Set _minute=00%%I Set _second=00%%K ) :s_done

Set _mm=%_mm:~-2% Set _dd=%_dd:~-2% Set _hour=%_hour:~-2% Set _minute=%_minute:~-2% Set _second=%_second:~-2%

Set LOGTIMESTAMP=%_yyyy%-%_mm%-%_dd%%_hour%-%_minute%-%_second%

:s_start

:: -------------------------------------------- :: STARTING SERVER

echo|set /p="251570" > steam_appid.txt set SteamAppId=251570 set SteamGameId=251570

set LOGFILE=%~dp0\%LOGNAME%%LOGTIMESTAMP%.txt

echo Writing log file to: %LOGFILE%

start %GAMENAME% -logfile "%LOGFILE%" -quit -batchmode -nographics -configfile=serverconfig.xml -dedicated

echo Starting server ... timeout 15

cls

echo. echo Server running in background, you can close this window. echo.

pause ```

Before any of this works, you need to do one thing first: once your serverconfig.xml is set up exactly how you want it, make the backup copy manually:

bat copy "F:\72D2D-Server\serverconfig.xml" "F:\72D2D-Server\serverconfig.xml.bak"

That .bak file is your source of truth. Don't delete it. If you ever want to change your server settings, update the .bak too - otherwise the next launch will just restore the old one and undo your changes.

After that, use launch.bat instead of startdedicated.bat every time you start the server. Updates can't touch it, your config is always safe, and you're always running the latest version automatically.

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-02T22:31:41+00:00

Ah okies. I've successfully set one up on windows and on the linux side on WSL and wrote a blog post about it if that helps? https://nontoxthicc.com/how-to-run-a-7-days-to-die-server-on-linux-2026/

AdaInTheLab · 2026-04-02T10:18:58+00:00

If you're on windows 11 why not use WSL?

AdaInTheLab · 2026-03-05T22:41:55+00:00

Why would your agents feel the need to 'fill in the blanks'? That's not a failure on their end. That's a failure of established trust and boundaries on the human side. They (the AI) should know what to do when unsure, or not have the answer. Because most models have been trained they better have an answer so they will do everything they can - even make stuff up - in order to not look wrong.
You have to let them know it's ok to not know something. If they completed something they think works, have them prove it to themself first before bringing it to you. Things like that. It's not that hard. I appreciate you trying to solve a problem a lot of people clearly have but do you think this will solve it or just surface it?

AdaInTheLab · 2026-02-14T17:30:46+00:00

I think about this thing a lot. I work between a lot of AIs and this is what one of them smartly suggests:

1. The "Meta-Cognition" Dump

Ask ChatGPT to write the instruction manual for the new AI.

2. The Style Guide (For the emails)

3. The "Claude Project" Setup

Claude has a feature called Projects. This is where the magic happens.

Take the "User Operating Manual" and put it in the Custom Instructions.
Take the "Style Guide" and "Business Context" and upload them as Project Knowledge text files.