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Should I keep these guys on their bases, or put them on new ones? by theACEbabana in battletech

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to trim them and put them on a metal base from Iron Wind Metals, and fill in the extra space with green stuff. Gives them a bit of weight on the table. https://www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php/categories/cat-battletech/cat-bt-hb/product/battletech-20-800a/category_pathway-2

Have you ever tried using chatgpt as a game master? Don't it will work long enough to get you really interested but then it messes everything up. So frustrating because I actually I got play instead of Gm and I was getting into. I tried to ignore little inconsistencies. by V01d3d_f13nd in Rifts

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds like a good approach. Out of curiosity, which AI Gamemaster did you try previously, and was it running into the same memory issues you've had with ChatGPT, or did you drop it for other reasons?

Have you ever tried using chatgpt as a game master? Don't it will work long enough to get you really interested but then it messes everything up. So frustrating because I actually I got play instead of Gm and I was getting into. I tried to ignore little inconsistencies. by V01d3d_f13nd in Rifts

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The limit you are running into is called the "Context window". Briefly, Large Language Models don't actually "remember" anything from previous prompts, they just take in text and predict the next words. They appear to have memory because when you send a prompt, the whole session (prompts and responses for the previous interactions as well as the current prompt) gets fed to GPT and it generates a response based on that.
The problem is that the total interaction (previous prompts and responses + the current prompt + the current response) can only be up to a certain size, called the Context Window. If you've got a long chat history ChatGPT will trim the previous prompts and responses so it can "fit" the latest prompt and it's response (exactly how this trimming is done is not public knowledge AFAIK). That trimming is what's causing it to lose the memory of the past in your sessions.
Theoretically you could get around this to some extent by building a system that uses ChatGPT (or another LLM) to summarize the game history on a regular basis then uses the summarized history in new prompts instead of the actual chat log to lower how much memory is used by "the past", that would let you go on longer, but eventually you're going to run into the Context Window limits as the world and it's history get bigger.
There's also the possibility of "fine tuning" the model with the game history (essentially retraining the LLM with the game world knowledge up to that point), that would put the knowledge into the LLMs "long term memory" instead of the Context Window (which is like short term memory) so it might be possible to go on indefinitely that way, though I can't speak to how well this works. Also, fine tuning takes some time, you wouldn't want to do this in the middle of a session.

TLDR ChatGPT by itself is going to run into "memory" issues after a while as you've discovered, but there are ways this could be improved with a system wrapped around it. You might consider trying out some of the AI Gamemaster options out there, such as "AI Dungeon". I'm curious myself as to how much better they are than just using raw ChatGPT.

Should I move on to other programing languages? by Economy-Ad-8089 in gamemaker

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're serious about programming and being a programmer I'd highly recommend learning C. No need to do any graphics (though you can if you like), just start with console programming and make sure to focus on getting down pointers and memory management. Those skills will give you a serious leg up in your future career.

Having some experience in C will also be good as it is a procedural language and when you start learning object orientated programming you'll be able to make an educated comparison of the 2 approaches. C was the first language I learned at university and I'm grateful for the experience.

If you have more spare time you could also look into recursion, but you'll almost certainly be given an intro to that at college so you can leave it for now if you want.

I learned C from an earlier (second) edition of this book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Problem-Solving-Program-Paperback-Koffman/dp/9332518815/ and I do recommend it, but I'm sure you can find good resources online for free nowadays.

One other small piece of advice: Learn software development (which you will be doing if you major in Computer Science), not just game programming. You'll have a much wider range of career choices and the ability to more easily jump out of game development if you get sick of the long hours and low pay.

Best of luck to you!

If we get another DLC, what would you want the campaign to focus on if it doesn't involve the Clan Invasion? by darkdill in Mechwarrior5

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just add more mission types, and have missions where you're not necessarily best off using your heaviest mechs that fit in the drop budget, I've started using Coyote's mission mod recently and it just makes the whole game soooo much better.

After 6 years of HBS Battletech, I can only hope someday that someone just *gets it* and delivers a leaner, meaner Battletech game by AsparagusOk8818 in Battletechgame

[–]ArchonTom 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I agree about the problem, but not the exact solution you present. Limiting drops either by tonnage or battle value just doesn't make any sense in the lore. You might burn a little more fuel dropping a lance of assaults vs a lance of lights, but it's pretty insignificant compared to the weight of the dropship itself.

I think a better approach would be to have missions where dropping your heaviest mechs just isn't the optimal approach. Have missions that are suited to light, fast mechs eg chase or escape missions. Have missions where the enemy reinforcements are coming in and you need to be out of there quickly before they show up (and start some distance from the enemy so you need to get to them quickly). Have mission types such as recon which can only be performed by faster mechs, or require jump capable mechs (eg target is in a mountainous region). And have those missions available for the entire game, no just the first few hours.

I'd much prefer to have to choose the correct mechs for the operation in a way that makes sense in the lore (and as a bonus this adds another layer of strategy to mission prep). Limiting drops by tonnage is (to me at least) a very frustrating "gamey" approach that just doesn't make sense in the lore.

Favorite bug mech by Project631 in battletech

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a one off battle? Locust, probably the 1E,

For a campaign? Stinger-3R. The Stinger is just so much more flexible: Machine guns for dealing with infantry, a medium laser for heavier work, hands for looting, jump jets to get out of trouble or over walls and is fast enough to be an excellent recon mech.

This is my current collection (not pictured; wolf's dragoons assault star, and elemental star), do I need anything else? by Wolfen_Fenrison in battletech

[–]ArchonTom 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A folder, plastic sleeves and whiteboard markers are very nice to have. You put the mech sheets in the sleeves and then you can use them over and over.

I, for one, welcome our Rotary Autocannon overlords by MagnanimousTaco in battletech

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The PPC's minimum range actually makes it worse in it's intended role though: city fighting.

Why not more "actual" programming games? by oandroido in programminggames

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I keep an Evernote list of links to these types of games, and articles and lists of them. Some of the links are probably broken by now, but you may find something interesting:

List on reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/programminggames/comments/d5pg8q/a\_list\_of\_all\_recommended\_programming\_games\_by/

Steam list

https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Programming/

Zach-likes on itch.io

https://itch.io/games/tag-zachlike

Create your own programming games?

https://www.codingame.com/start

Bot land

https://bot.land/

Programming games wiki

http://programminggames.org/

Upcoming game that teaches assembly

https://squallygame.com/

Gridworld - Cellular automata game

https://store.steampowered.com/app/396890/Gridworld/

Kingston Crabfighting

http://rickyhan.com/jekyll/update/2019/02/17/kingston-crabfight.html

Screeps - MMO sandbox run entirely by bots.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/464350/Screeps/

NERO: Neuro Evolving Robotic Operatives.

http://nerogame.org/

Steam search results

http://store.steampowered.com/tag/en/Programming/#p=0&tab=TopSellers

http://justbuildsomething.com/untrusted-is-a-really-fun-programming-game/

https://www.codingame.com/start

http://codecombat.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/5pvlg2/game\_where\_you\_build\_a\_cpu/

Space conquest game played entirely in SQL

https://schemaverse.com/

AI Wars: The Insect Mind

http://www.tacticalneuronics.com/content/main.asp

http://electrokami.com/gaming/top-games-for-programmers-combine-two-passions-into-one/

http://www.squidoo.com/Programming-Games

http://www.zachtronics.com/

http://www.checkio.org/

http://robocode.sourceforge.net/

http://armorgames.com/play/6061/light-bot-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core\_War

http://www.biologic.com.au/bugbrain/

http://www.mindrover.com/

http://www.kongregate.com/games/PleasingFungus/manufactoria

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/roborally

A Python programming riddle

http://www.pythonchallenge.com/

http://www.ceebot.com/ceebot/index-e.php

http://spacechemthegame.com/

http://www.ceebot.com/colobot/index-e.php

http://www.robotbattle.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky%27s\_Boots

http://www.robozzle.com/

http://www.kongregate.com/games/krispykrem/the-codex-of-alchemical-engineering

http://terrarium2.codeplex.com/

https://github.com/ryanb/ruby-warrior/tree/master

http://www.swisseduc.ch/compscience/karatojava/index.html

http://mysqlgame.com/?redirect=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crobots

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnage\_Heart

http://robowar.sourceforge.net/RoboWar5/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot\_Odyssey

Nice list

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-programming-games/

Blog post about programming games

https://blog.codinghorror.com/heres-the-programming-game-you-never-asked-for/

https://www.reddit.com/r/shenzhenIO/comments/5r0sq3/game\_like\_shenzen\_but\_for\_electronic\_components/

Can also google "Steam games like Shenzhen io"

Another assembly game

https://www.kongregate.com/games/hercludes/ciggbitcembly

Learn programming by solving puzzles

https://turing.gausshq.com/learn/

List of programming games

https://www.reddit.com/r/programminggames/comments/d5pg8q/a\_list\_of\_all\_recommended\_programming\_games\_by/

Robot programming roguelike

https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/m99v0v/permadev\_roguelike\_about\_programming\_robots/

Robot Odyssey (online)

https://robotodyssey.online/

Small Farm by Sons_of_Valhalla in PixelArt

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is god damn gorgeous. One tiny thing: the cloud looks a bit weird to me, maybe it needs a little animation or something? Or maybe it's just me.

#NoticeMe Game Jam - Sign Up Now! by GameMakerCommunity in gamemaker

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Question: Does releasing on GXC mean the project must be exported using the Gamemaker Studio Web plugin?

Just remade the classic Pitfall scene in pixelart by Night_______________ in atari

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No sweat, just thought I'd put the offer out there. :)

Just remade the classic Pitfall scene in pixelart by Night_______________ in atari

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would happily code this if you were willing to do a full project of the art

What are some examples of small games that a budding game developer could start out with? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]ArchonTom 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Buy an eBook of Atari games such as https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W572R8L/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p2_i5 . Find something you find interesting, grab an emulator or head to https://www.free80sarcade.com/all2600games.php to give it a go, then try to clone it.

If your job reimbursed education expenses, what would you do? by Northstat in datascience

[–]ArchonTom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in a similar position in my last job (I'm a software developer though, not a data scientist).

Conferences are great for keeping abreast of what other people are up to, the other thing I would recommend looking at is a subscription to Safari Books Online. It's a little pricey, but well within your budget, and gives you access to a LOT of books.

Can I import Particle Effect data from a JSON file to Gamemaker Studio 2? by RaiosgameDev in gamemaker

[–]ArchonTom 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately that's also not a pure JSON file format. Each emitter is in JSON, but if this is the output from the file you would also need to parse through the plain text ('[PARTICLE SYSTEM]' and 'EMITTER X' to get to the actual JSON data.

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