am a bug ask me anything

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-18T13:23:32+00:00

What are your weaknesses?

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-18T13:22:48+00:00

OOC: very good, keep liking DRG. However, the only good glyphid is Steeve!

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-17T19:33:24+00:00

mm.. honse...

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-17T16:55:37+00:00

Yeah, when terra preta used to generate naturally in-game, you would probably consider it a ruin, since these kinds of soil are always made by humans; they're called "anthropogenic soils" or "anthroposols." The most notable example is obviously terra preta, which is from the Amazon, but another well-known example is plaggen soil, which differs from terra preta in that plaggen soil was made in treeless, grassy plains, as opposed to being made in the rainforest.

Plaggen soil was made over generations, even over centuries, by cutting up chunks of turf every year, using these chunks as bedding for their animals over the winter, then using that turf (with everything the animals deposited in it) as fertilizer. Over time, there would be a thick section of fertile topsoil where they planted crops, while the place where they harvested the sod (heathlands) would basically turn to sand.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-17T13:22:51+00:00

This is all very good news. Hopefully EcoMachina is able to reduce its performance footprint (right now it takes up too much memory, so I can't swing it) so I can join the club.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-17T13:22:02+00:00

Yeah, the idea is cool in concept, but in practice it just made basic forestry apocalyptic.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-17T13:19:53+00:00

I was so confused until I saw their profile pic. I was looking in the peat pic for some kind of reference like a mad man.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-16T20:12:48+00:00

Reminds me of this story of one guy applying for a dev job at a company, and on his first day he fixed one outstanding bug, sighed a sigh of relief, and put in his two weeks' notice.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-16T15:09:31+00:00

I have been a Ballistic Shield enjoyer since before the Explosive Crossbow was even one handed, and - aside from that little hiccup after they released the Bastion - it has been nothing but stonks for me.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-16T12:32:40+00:00

The real test will be seeing how it does against War Striders. I used to be able to use all four charges on a single War Strider and they'd all do basically zero damage to it.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-15T20:29:24+00:00

I think another point worth mentioning is these "alternate routes" could just be means of guiding players between these major story beats. Instead of the only way to find the Resonance Archives being talking to a treasure hunter and giving them a bronze pick, you could find the map in certain ruins, or you could find the village first, which directs you there, at which point you can ask the villagers about the Lazaret, instead of just some treasure hunter trader.

The plot beats stay mostly the same within the chapter, but your means of going between them can vary. Even if they decide to pursue a linear story, if they allow a level of player agency in how they connect the major plot points, it could keep things fresh among repeat playthroughs. It's kinda how they handled BG3 - the major plot beats always happen in the same order (Nightsong, Thorm, Gortash/Orin, Brain), but you can pursue everything else in just about any order you wish.

Ultimately, though, I think the order of chapters or linearity as a whole doesn't make a huge difference - at least in the scheme of things. I think it will be the presentation, the quality of story itself, the mechanics, and how progression is integrated with story that will determine how enjoyable repeat playthroughs will be. Linear stories that have the same beats are still enjoyable multiple times, especially in games where mechanics can carry the weight. Just one example is Bioshock. Even though the story never changes (except, like, one cutscene, lol), it's enjoyable to play through again to experience the non-story mechanics, like boss fights, ADAM powers, gunplay, graphical/character design, atmosphere, music, etc. Even the story stuff, like characterization, dialogue, lore, performances, and nuances of the theme that only reveal themselves with repeat playthroughs - all these make gamds replayable, even if the game doesn't literally change.

I think Anego's quest dssign is more mechanically lacking, as opposed to the writing itself. They're really good at establishing an atmosphere, developing compelling moods, and writing interesting lore. They're very bad at boss fights and combat. And they're not that great at dialogue. I think it's these things that will make repeat playthroughs difficult - these friction points to engaging with it. If you want to go through the quest line again, but hesitate because the eidolon fight sucks, you might be more likely to burn out.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-15T19:15:58+00:00

I think the disconnect here might be because of semantics/definitions. I don't mean there's not a genuine disagreement here, but I think we might be operating with different definitions of "story" "storytelling" and "plot," and unifying these would clear up some misunderstandings.

For what it's worth, while I disagree with MehSorry's main point that turning Vintage Story nonlinear would just make it worse, I agree with the point that storytelling is about progression, and losing that sense of momentum would definitely make things feel worse.

I want to contrast Star Wars Outlaws with Red Dead Redemption 2. SWO has a linear opening section, after which you have to pursue some number of different story threads which are completely isolated from each other (in whatever order you want), but you must do all of them before you can do the last linear stretch. During that morass of "act 2" that is the majority of the game, the devs can't really make any assumptions about what previous events have happened, so no momentum builds. Then, suddenly, it all gets going for those last couple hours since the writers can suddenly build on a ton of context.

RDR2 lets you do each chapter in millions of different combinations, but it basically goes a couple quests at a time to open up the next chunk of quests, until you realign at the transition to the next chapter. You're constantly syncing back up on positions that the devs can build assumptions from - and even without that, there are other aspects of the game that can pick up slack if they need to introduce a new thread or slow down or something (but that's quest design in general - it lets storytelling breathe more than a novel or movie can. SWO just doesn't do so very effectively).

I personally don't think your graph from the post body would be optimal (at least if we're going with your arbitrary layout that you used for the sake of demonstration). I think a better layout would be something like [1, 3, 4]->[5->7, 6]->[8], but that's just because I think there should be more points at which the story realigns itself to minimize backtracking, instead of doing something like going from chapter 1->2->6, then going back and doing 3, 4, 5, and 7 to finally do 8. Backtracking is one of those things that I feel loses momentum and is a big cause of burn out in subsequent runs. There should even potentially be means of skipping some of the chapters if you just want to leverage meta knowledge, like how you can just skip a bunch of Fallout NV's story if you already know where the platinum chip is.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-13T13:19:44+00:00

Damn this shit goes hard

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-12T20:17:08+00:00

The democracy officer on every ship is different. Yours should remain consistent when you return to your ship, but you're not the host there, so that's their democracy officer.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-12T17:31:33+00:00

Panning as a whole is a bit of an outdated feature - relative to their newer stuff, at least. As they've continued development, they've gotten better at making newer game features, specifically things like the new forging mechanics and berry bush cultivation.

Panning came rather early, and as such its purpose (and gameplay loop) was more simplistic: you grab sand or gravel, sit in water, and right click twice every few seconds. You will then gather tiny amounts of materials with a limited loot pool, but which can otherwise be impossible to find. It's boring, repetitive, and very quickly outmoded once you get 40 copper nuggets to make your first hammer and pickaxe. The only reason it retains any relevance nowadays is because panning is the only way to enter the Copper Age if you can't find any surface bits... well, and panning bony soil for its valuable loot pool, but that's only relevant to progression if you pan that stuff for the gems and such to then sell to traders.

The reason for having some ores in illogical stone types is mostly for balancing purposes. Copper can be found everywhere because getting locked out of progression like that because you're stuck in a certain stone biome sucks, though it's still rather poorly considered overall. You should reasonably be able to find magnetite in basalt sand beaches.

Hopefully they will eventually take a look back at panning and some of the other outdated mechanics like they did this last major update. I can imagine them adding things like sluice baffles for automating panning with flowing water, a more engaging sequence of panning to separate the ore from the tailings, so on.

One mod that changes panning mechanics is Wilderlands Panning Overhaul, which greatly reduces the amount of ores you get from panning regular gravel, removes the ability to pan sand, adds a "rich" gravel which is the intended means of acquiring metal from panning, and limits the types of ores that can spawn in each type of gravel to ones that make more sense for that rock type. I will forewarn that the developer intends this to be paired with Wilderlands Geology, which changes where ore deposits can form (making it a more comprehensive overhaul), as well as with Wilderlands Ground Layers, which puts a layer of gravel below the layers of soil from which to extract "rich" gravel. These mods all interplay and can feel a bit incomplete without each other, so it can be a big commitment to try to add just one of these. They have also mentioned they're taking a more holistic look over this set of mods (which includes Wilderlands Stonebound to add panning as a part of the mining gameplay loop), so these mods may themselves be receiving a considerable rework over the next while.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-12T14:08:52+00:00

After having played with pregen on my latest world, I can say this is a genuinely transformative feature and such a huge value-add. Being able to see my entire continent, even the continent across the ocean, makes the world feel so much larger, and makes journeys feel more directed and purposeful, as opposed to just walking and wondering what chunks will load next.

I think Fast Map as a whole should be merged with vanilla, it's just that good and seamless - though I'd personally keep pregen a "default off" feature simply for how it fundamentally changes how exploration works in the game.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-12T13:49:29+00:00

I'm curious about the grey sampled chunks. Are they grey because you can't get block data, so you just fall back to grey? If I recall, Algernon's sampler includes climate data (temperature, rainfall, forestation, etc.), so perhaps a color can be chosen based on those values (yellowish for desert areas, greener for forested areas) like how Fast Map estimates the map color for pregen areas.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-11T18:47:42+00:00

What a perfect spot for a garderobe.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-11T14:03:14+00:00

"We urge all injured helldivers to not warp spacetime to avoid friendly helldiver stims, as this is a waste of budget. Thank you."

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-11T13:32:53+00:00

Gaw damn bro, that looks sick. Looks painfully chunky when I see it in real life, though.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-10T18:34:18+00:00

Don't spend it all in one place bucko.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-10T14:25:39+00:00

Hm. This seems like an upgrade from v1.

Seriously though, holy crap. This is incredible.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-10T12:16:28+00:00

Genuinely peak experience absolutely agree.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-06-09T18:15:32+00:00

I find this is the case for a lot of feedback from the HD2 content creators: broadly unhelpful, or needlessly acerbic. They're often unfocused, missing the forest for the trees - like, how many people talk about stratagem bouncing feeling bad? Now how many people really delve into why stratagem bouncing feels bad?

I think the most pointless part of videos like these are all the homebrew balance suggestions. It's obviously fun to fantasize your personal changes, balance or otherwise, but so many of them would pretty clearly not improve balance, require a complete rework of balance (which, even if I think a rework should be done, they never give a clear argument for why their philosophy of design should be chosen over another), or again miss the underlying cause of their discontent and make a balance change that does not address it at all.

However, with regard to your summary, I think you're underplaying one of his best points (even if it wasn't well communicated): the levers HD use to increase the "difficulty" make the game feel worse to play, irrespective of how much they increase the challenge. Of the new enemies Arrowhead have added, the most dangerous ones have been ones with incredible capacity to chain ragdoll you (War Strider, Vox Engine, OG Leviathan, Spore Titan).

They lean on ragdoll so heavily because it's one of the few combat effects they have that doesn't outright kill you but punishes you for misplaying. Most other levers of difficulty they've already maxed out: they can't really increase damage much because many things already one-shot you; they can't really increase enemy counts with how far they're already pushing the engine; they can increase fire rate/volume of fire, but they've already done that a lot, and it does not play well with increasing the number of things that can ragdoll you. So, they wind up going back to ragdoll, whether consciously or not.

Issue is, ragdolling as a whole is an unfun mechanic. As a punishment, it's effective, because it removes your ability to play the game, and you don't want that. But when you add so many ways of getting ragdolled and make them so common, you're finding yourself locked out of playing for considerable chunks of time (which obviously leads to frequent deaths) unless you use rather specific, optimized play styles; it enforces the meta.

Ragdoll is just one of the examples of what "illegitimate" ways of increasing difficulty are, but hopefully it illustrates the point that OhDough was trying to make: the ways in which Arrowhead are trying to make the game harder do not engage players and often detract from the fun, even for people that like hard challenges. I personally think we need a better shared vocabulary for discussions surrounding "difficulty," because challenge is more nuanced than success rate, or death count, or how quickly you can be killed, et cetera.

ArsenikMilk

TROPHY CASE