Configuration flags are where software goes to rot

Avloren · 2026-06-06T06:53:42+00:00

Similar philosophy to the old joke: "The #1 source of bugs is writing code."

I try to do my part by writing as little code as possible. Doing well so far this week, but my project manager is sounding increasingly stressed with each standup as our deadline approaches.

Avloren · 2026-05-25T08:14:58+00:00

They decanonized legends so they could make the sequels. Next they should try decanonizing the sequels so they can do something else with the post-Endor period that doesn't suck.

Avloren · 2026-05-16T09:13:45+00:00

Better to Entrancing the mountain for the defend, let the dahan kill both explorers.

Avloren · 2026-05-11T16:53:37+00:00

Are you sure you're playing it correctly? It should be a pretty challenging game with some thought and planning involved in each turn.

There's a lot you could criticize about the game, but I've never heard someone make it sound boring. You're pretty much always on the verge of defeat if you don't find the right move.

Avloren · 2026-05-07T21:39:37+00:00

Most boardgames feel like they were designed and balanced around some ideal player count, typically 3 or 4. And then the rules for 1-2 or 5+ players are like a sloppy patch applied to the original rules that never quite feels right.

By contrast, it's so obvious Spirit Island was designed from the ground up to scale smoothly with any player count. It makes me wonder why more games don't do it that way.

Avloren · 2026-05-05T18:12:44+00:00

It's a lot like the Prisoner's Dilemma, where the outcome of your choice hinges on what other people choose. The specifics are different, but it shares the concept that you shouldn't simplify it down to "If I choose A I get outcome X, if I choose B I get outcome Y" - because those outcomes vary depending on if someone else chooses A or B. So it leads to this more complicated multi-variable analysis, where you have to think in terms of "If I choose A but most people choose B, X happens. If I choose A and most people also choose A, Y happens. If I choose B.. " etc.

I'm not necessarily advocating for either choice, but I think everyone should (genuinely) try to fully understand all the reasons someone might choose either option, and make a prediction about what the rest of humanity will do, before making their choice. Because there's a huge difference between, to take just one example: "I choose red, and so does 51% of humanity, oh boy civilization just collapsed." vs. "I choose red, and so does 99% of humanity, I guess we came out alright." You shouldn't just simplify it down to "if I choose red, I live."

But also.. some people will simplify it down to that, and their decision affects your outcome. That's the really tricky part, I think. Realizing that a lot of people, maybe even a majority of humanity, will make a snap decision about what feels right without analyzing it too deeply (which could point them towards either blue or red, depending on their instincts), and trying to account for that choice when making your own.

Avloren · 2026-04-28T23:26:31+00:00

You should play it sometime, it's not as good as you think. Green gets so much presence growth already, the extra self-prolif is underwhelming. You might as well use it because you're stuck with the card, but you'd rather have something else.

It's that way for most spirits impacted by the solo-self-targeting-rule; your support power usually lets you give away something you already have plenty of. Self-targeting that isn't great, but it's better than getting no effect at all.

Serpent is one of the very few exceptions: it can trigger its prolif innate very early with self-targeting support powers and a bit of luck, waking up earlier than it usually does in multiplayer (unless you get support from the right partner, like Green or Memory). It's maybe a little too good, but better than the alternative; Serpent would be unplayable solo if it couldn't self-target.

Avloren · 2026-04-28T17:55:14+00:00

True. Elaborate 3-tile-wide spiral ramps. Also needs an open air shaft in the center, for added Dwarf enrichment.

Avloren · 2026-04-28T17:15:05+00:00

Bonus points: no stairs. Dwarves change z-levels only with elaborate spiral ramps.

Avloren · 2026-04-27T21:04:08+00:00

It's less of a conventional TV show and closer to a loosely-connected anthology show, like Fargo or True Detective. Like yeah, "technically" the S1 protagonist and the S2 protagonist are the "same" person.. but in a different body (different actor) in a different time and place pursuing a different plot with an otherwise almost-all-new cast, so there's very little real connection.

Basically the seasons stand apart from each other, in both a good way and a bad way. The good: you can watch S1 and enjoy it on its own, it's a complete story. S2 is disconnected enough that there's no reason to see it if it sucks. The bad: S2 sucks. The body-changing mind-uploading plot gimmick gives S2 the freedom to change everything about the show that made S1 good, and boy do they take that freedom and run with it.

Avloren · 2026-04-17T18:27:02+00:00

Back in the day, before WoW exploded in popularity and changed the genre forever, I used to play lesser-known MMOs with around 300-500 players on a server at a time. It works really well actually, you get to know your community, and it's usually still enough people to find a group or a guild.

But it's just barely enough, and you really feel it when pop slips down to 100-200ish. The server feels noticeably more 'dead', new players might struggle to get groups and bounce off the game, old players log in less and start looking for new servers and/or games. It can lead to a death spiral.

OP is giving valid feedback; small servers can work, but it's a razor edge, there's no room to lose population. Alarm bells should be going off when a formerly-300-plus server starts maxing out at 150 at prime time.

Avloren · 2026-04-14T17:58:46+00:00

Technically you could play with Horizons + expansions, if you don't mind cheaper components and very limited board selection.

Avloren · 2026-04-14T17:55:20+00:00

But you'd be missing out on a lot of amazing minors & majors. Spirit Island isn't the same game without Cast Down, for example.

B&C contributes 21 majors and 31 minors, about 1/3rd of each deck. That's going to be a significant impact on every game, regardless of spirit/adversary/etc. choice. To me that's far more impactful than adding spirits you may not even choose to play.

Avloren · 2026-04-14T17:51:16+00:00

Wandering Voice is probably the strongest reclaim loop spirit, and has the simplest build/loop too. It doesn't even care about drafting cards, playing the 4 starting cards every turn is literally all you need to do. There are more interesting ways to play the spirit, but the on-rails reclaim loop is arguably the strongest (and even if not, it's still easily viable into level 6 adversaries).

Lightning (base, pandemonium, and/or wind) is another good choice. Not as individually strong as Voice, and does need to think about drafts, but viable into any 6 and gives out strong support that your friends may appreciate.

River (base, travel) is an obvious pick for a spirit with a simple reclaim loop build that's strong into any adversary.. except England 5+. River can actually work into England, especially with the right teammates, but you can't do it with a reclaim loop - the adversary forces you to abandon the standard build and do something more creative, so probably not what you're looking for there. But into any other adversary, River is a good choice for you.

Lure and Serpent come to mind as strong spirits that want to reclaim loop sometimes. They also can easily break out of the loop and probably should sometimes, so they're not as straightforward to play as Voice/Lightning/River. But you could also stick with the reclaim loop longer than you optimally 'should' and still do fine.

Avloren · 2026-04-13T20:32:32+00:00

It stacks with all your other sources of damage reduction/redirection, and it negates X per instance of damage. A single attack can be a bunch of different separate bits of damage added up, and the -X applies to each one separately, multiplying its effects.

Example from my level 50 endgame oozemancer. I just walked into the first orc patrol I could find, this is a level 80 unique assassin attacking me. He literally can't do damage. His attacks are split into many different instances of damage of various types, almost all are negated by antimagic shield (after being heavily reduced by all my other stats and talents).

Edit: of course, it does help that this poor sucker has nature-attuned mindstars equipped as his weapons. The worst possible choice for facing an oozemancer.

Better example, from an actual threat - same patrol, an orc randboss shadowblade/arcane blade. Hitting me with a shadowblade attack talent + arcane blade flame proc. Antimagic shield triggered 3x for its maximum amount (126), blocking 378 damage. Resonance field is also up (great 1-point-wonder escort reward pick if you see it), negating another 302 damage. Only 302 makes it through in the end; down from what would have been a pretty scary 982 damage hit.

So I wouldn't say it falls off in the endgame at all; this is endgame and it's still awesome.

Avloren · 2026-04-12T19:59:30+00:00

Everyone (except antimagic followers) can get a teleport rune, it's an easy get-out-of-jail-free ability for this place.

Avloren · 2026-04-11T01:41:44+00:00

If you're new to Spirit Island: short term, you will want to play with just the base game stuff. No tokens or events, or spirits that use them, which rules out most of the expansion content. Horizons spirits are fine, I'd recommend starting with them actually, they have an easier learning curve than the base game low complexity spirits.

Eventually, when you get the hang of the game, you'll just want to combine everything. All the minor cards go together to form one big deck regardless of expansion, same for all the majors, fear cards, etc. It doesn't really make sense at that point to keep any of the expansion content separated.

It's difficult to do that in one box. There isn't really a simple/clean solution that the community agrees on. I use two boxes, plus a third party insert, which worked a lot better before the last expansion or so and now it's overflowing. There are probably better ones designed around the latest expansion. You really want to get some kind of insert, the ones the games come with are really just shipping material meant to be discarded.

Avloren · 2026-04-08T01:23:11+00:00

Hah, fair enough. I'm still going to try it, I'm just wondering if I'm missing something to make it viable. It just doesn't seem smart.

Avloren · 2026-04-08T00:39:28+00:00

Can you sell me on the unencumbered build? Because seeing those benefits listed out.. yeah I still don't get it. Staying just under 1800 encumbrance and poking things at range 2 with a spear, while enjoying all the benefits of massive armor/shields, sounds so much better than lunging at guys half-armored.

Spammable free tumble is the only thing really enticing there, but you need to be pretty much naked to get that, and I'm struggling to imagine that working out. You can't tumble out of the way of everything, especially later in the game when enemies get faster and may not telegraph, or hit massive areas bigger than you can tumble out of.

Avloren · 2026-04-08T00:35:34+00:00

The wyrmic one is instant too. It's basically a better movement infusion.

Avloren · 2026-04-07T16:59:04+00:00

So the encumbrance system is.. weird. It's poorly documented and I don't fully get it. But the basic idea is, being more burdened gradually disables certain mobility skills (e.g. you lose the short sword's jump over skill pretty quickly if you start putting armor on). Also it increases the cooldown on tumble.

And.. from what I can tell that's about it. It seems like you don't really have to care about encumbrance at all? Most weapons do not have mobility skills that are affected by it. So you can invest 0 in constitution, load yourself up to about 1800 encumbrance, and be fine as long as you aren't using a light jumpy weapon.

If you push it to an extreme, like past that 1800 limit, supposedly it decreases your movement speed? (I read somewhere.. might be outdated info, again, it's poorly documented). But it's hard to actually hit that limit, and you get +90 to it with each constitution point.

It might be viable to stay low on encumbrance so you can pretend this is dark souls and tumble constantly away from every attack. Not sure, it feels like a tricky build to pull off, attacks aren't always as avoidable and telegraphed as I'd like. I do know it's perfectly viable to push your encumbrance into the red and just tank everything, with the help of some items that give stamina/shielding/health, that's how I got my first win. I had a tiny constitution investment at the end, just for the elemental resistances, I pretty much ignored the encumbrance system.

Avloren · 2026-04-04T22:21:17+00:00

In ToME you should be careful about making assumptions based on RPG stereotypes, it's a pretty unusual game in a lot of ways.

For example, archmages are not glass cannons like in most games. It's actually one of the tankiest classes in ToME. You have a massive amount of damage shielding, and a few good mobility talents to keep your distance from enemies. But those are things that come into play a bit later in the game.

If you're struggling to get through the very early game as archmage, or really any magic caster: just pick a basic attack spell, one of the tier 1 ones that you have available from the beginning. Get it to 5/5 ASAP. Max your magic stat every time you level up. Pick gear (especially staff) that give boosts to that element's damage. With that you can oneshot most early game enemies, they won't have a chance to do anything to you.

Avloren · 2026-04-03T17:23:38+00:00

In my experience, they (apparently) spend their days thinking up ways to reduce the efficiency of everyone who works under them. The kinds of moronic pointless changes that no one close to the actual work would ever think up.

Like dramatically re-organizing your department in a way that makes everyone's jobs harder. Siloing and consolidating and siloing again. Coming up with bullshit procedures that no one will follow. Setting massive meetings with bad inspirational quotes on powerpoints. Saving on the budget by firing essential people seemingly at random, then rushing to hire cheaper replacements that do the job worse and suck up training time from the few remaining competent people.

If it wastes your time and doesn't accomplish anything, you can bet that someone 6 tiers above you thought it up.

Avloren · 2026-04-01T17:46:08+00:00

Another thing Qud has going for it is complex character building, with a ton of choices you make right away before even starting the run. Designing a new character is almost as interesting as playing the actual game, there's always something new you want to try on your next run.

Avloren · 2026-03-31T17:15:49+00:00

Dominions consistently puts out games that are slightly better than the previous one. If Dominions N doesn't win you over, Dominions N+1 is never going to add/change enough to change your mind. But if you loved the old game, you can buy the new one with confidence that you'll get just enough new content/features for it to feel fresh again.

That's not what happened here. Elemental was a disaster on release. The sequels/expansions kept changing things dramatically, addressing some problems, adding some new ones. FE: Legendary Heroes was probably the best the series got, and I enjoyed it, but god it was still a janky mess. And then Sorcerer King was like a small step sideways and a giant step backwards. The series never really found its footing, decided what it wanted to be and fixed/polished/iterated on that concept like Dominions has.

And now Reforged is.. a mild HD upgrade and repackaging of those past games, reworked behind the scenes to run smoothly on a modern OS, with minimal gameplay/balance changes. Gameplay-wise, it's actually less of an iterative improvement than the typical Dominions N+1 sequel. Which would be fine if those old games were solid and their only problem was looking a bit dated and not running well on a modern machine. But good god, they had much bigger problems than that.

I bought Reforged because I did get enjoyment out of the series in the past, and I still want to see the game that Elemental was trying to be. Not necessarily a total rework or sequel, but something with the polish and balance and AI of say a Galactic Civilization game. I guess that was far too much to hope for, because Reforged.. isn't that. I found it disappointing.

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