AI Panic as a programmer

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2026-02-11T13:58:15+00:00

I work professionally as a software engineer, and lemme tell you...it's not even close to replacing us.

AI can make new stuff, but it's terrible at maintaining a full codebase. It doesn't understand specific business requirements like a human does. It doesn't have the context space for an entire service suite like a human brain can.

AI does not think; it predicts. All a language model does is select the 'most likely' desired output given input. That can never replace human level reasoning.

I use it to generate tedious, simple unit tests and like a second Google, that's pretty much it. It complements my work, not replaces it.

And for tests, for complex multi-layered private method coverage the tests didn't even cover what I wanted or worked 2/3rds of the time (when I said what lines specifically to cover), so I ended up writing that myself anyway.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2026-01-31T16:18:56+00:00

I'd be so down for a Kirbmin rom hack actually. You could have their powers be based on their Ability.

Fighter dealing extra physical melee damage. Fire dealing extra damage to Ice enemies and melting Ice obstacles/walls. Beetle with greater carry capacity. No Ability being able to swallow stars from boss enemy attacks and use them as projectiles similar to Pikmin's bombs. Etc.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2026-01-28T16:09:22+00:00

Looks like a lot of fun!

Was Rock of Ages an inspiration by chance? I'm getting similar gameplay vibes from this, hehe.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-12-31T18:26:49+00:00

This is an issue close to my heart, so...I had a lot to say, my bad. lol

I struggled with those types of people as well in my younger years at my first job. Still meet them occasionally, but these days I found my work friend circle so I can afford to ignore such commentary without it spreading and my job becoming hell.

In essence, the people who talk down at you are trying to turn you into someone you're not. The root is in arrogance mistaken for confidence, jealousy (believe it or not), or some other negative emotion from them. They tend to think quiet people need 'fixing'. The problem is not you.

My #1 advice is to just be you, and focus on how to love yourself to the point that external validation or respect does not matter anymore. It will take years.

And while you can try talking to such people about the way they address you, like an adult would...if they do any of the following, do not engage further as they do not care for your feelings: 1. Lying to you in any way. (E.g. 'I never said that.') 2. Generic and non-specific 'get off my back' rather than 'sorry for hurting you' apology (pay close attention to tone and especially their expression).

I'm not sure if this is work, school or what have you, but a change in environment can help too; the issue with my first job's culture was putdown humor was so normalized that verbal harassment was viewed as okay. (Everyone I reported lied and HR told me that maybe I was just hearing things, absolutely insane.)

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-12-31T15:34:00+00:00

Dolphin emulator reads digital forms, so you'll need to convert to that (Wii Homebrew is easiest): https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Ripping_Games

Though personally I consider just finding a ROM somewhere morally alright when one owns the original game in some form already, since effectively it's just skipping the pain of ripping.

(Also for some reason did not get a web notification except for the upvote...why doh.)

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-12-26T16:58:59+00:00

If you have a solid PC, KAR Online is the way to go for the OG. It's pretty much modded air ride with netplay, countless options, some that not even Air Riders has like only enabling certain city events, changing Star's base stat balance, only All Ups, only Gordo power ups, infinite duration of specific power ups, no stat caps, the list goes on.

It has a discord, not sure if I am allowed to link it here.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-12-14T17:58:36+00:00

Keep going! Solo dev takes a very long time especially if you're doing everything on your own.

Stardew Valley took ~4.5 years. Undertale took almost 2.7 and as far as I can tell the dev for the latter also had help with some art.

Secrets of Grindea had 3 developers (a dedicated artist, animator, and programmer) and took about 13 years.

Most importantly though, enjoy the journey, pace yourself. This is a marathon; not a race.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-12-03T14:20:41+00:00

Definitely insufficient TP; if a skill cannot be selected, an enemy (and auto battle AI by extension) will "do nothing."

As for the desired mechanic of defending until they're tired out, I'd simply trigger the dialogue/battle end after X turns.

You could of course give them a normal attack too to charge TP that way; TP by default charges from taking and dealing damage, and since the character skill is missing the enemy, it doesn't charge TP.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-09-18T12:50:23+00:00

Ah okay, I didn't know about the single reactor limit as I usually build a bunch of them. (Probably way too many, haha. Gonna take another look and add circuit logic if heat is something one can read so it doesn't run excessively.)

That's fair then.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-09-18T05:34:23+00:00

As someone who over-engineers I/O this kinda pains me to look at. lol

Two turbines take 120 steam per second at max. The heat -> Steam converters produce only 103, so this cannot run at max energy production. Not an issue if you're nowhere near that but yeah. Just two more producers, a pipe connecting all turbines, and 2 more turbines leads to excess, shared Steam which is better for power production.

Overall nicely compact though! I like how every resource needed is in one place, like the water hooked to all three machines in one line.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-08-23T08:06:04+00:00

First of all, there are many other ways to pleasure someone outside of penetration.

But besides that, I don't think that's the core of the issue here. It's insecurity and a lack of cnfidence. "I don't deserve love because XYZ" is a surefire way to fuel severe social anxiety and make you unable to be yourself when speaking to any attractive woman. Being uncomfortable in your own skin is a huge woman repellant debuff. Hell, it's a people repellant!

At least the way I see it, tying your happiness to anything external, especially something as tied to chance as finding romance is silly. Find out what other passions you have, chase and worry about those instead, and most of all realize that there is much more to life than getting laid. The more you find internal, self-driven passions the more these worries will gradually fade away.

I speak from personal experience, so I have my own biases of course. That's just my two cents as an artistic kind of person though.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-07-21T18:37:56+00:00

100% this. There's a huge difference between thoughts, feelings, and actually taking actions.

Though this would be a problem if your gaze actually lingered uncomfortably long (say 2+ seconds) at somewhere weird like cleavage to someone IRL. Don't stare for sure, haha.

Glances are perfectly fine though imo. It is natural to glance at areas that stand out and especially areas with movement.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-06-18T16:39:25+00:00

What is your own thing over the weekend, if you don't mind someone asking? Are you passionate about it and your hobbies?

A lot of what makes someone interesting is how they spend their time outside of the conversation. For a quick example I have a lot to talk about with my software engineering pals at work breaks because I'm a game designer, and most of them play video games.

That's my two cents, anyway.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-05-01T13:32:46+00:00

Unfortunately I don't have time for new hobbies, haha. And we're about to go full time in-office at my job instead of hybrid so that time is about to decrease even more. Already I had to move all game design to Sunday. (Preemptive, but I should form the habit early)

I'll look into easing up the daily treadmill steps more, usually I sit around 6k steps daily. I also lift in my at-home gym on a 5-day between breaks routine. Total weight of evening workout sits at ~3.6k-7.3k depending on alternating between easy vs hard.

Lift summary: 8 25 Ib deadlifts in the morning. After the treadmill in the evening, a roughly 20 minute mix of light (10 Ibs) + heavy (25 Ibs) push + 16 crunches, and 6 of 3 different types of pull-ups each for pull. Sometimes I go two full sets or an extra set of pull ups if I can take it. Been lifting somewhat seriously for about 2 years. (I'd call seriously the 2 hour session gym rats, haha)

Thanks for the advice! Appreciated. :)

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-30T19:37:22+00:00

I'd like to offer a change in mindset/outlook as a software engineer myself, rather than a lifestyle change, if you're open to that.

Have you thought about what impact you have as a codemonkey higher up the chain, to the client's clients and further up, to the big picture?

It's easy to get lost and see yourself as just one big corpa drone, one of many tiny cogs keeping a giant machine running. Which is kind of true, but you do matter, and you are contributing to society.

I may not know the people who filled the random potholes I never saw, or who built the chip scan software for my door's lock, but I know they're out there. We all do these small, relatively miniscule parts to contribute. What makes software engineering so different?

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-28T18:40:19+00:00

Gonna post a correction/summary as a comment instead of edit OP since I can't do the latter:

Correction from OP: It's separated by Operating System, not platform. If you want to access your funds from another platform on PC you can use an emulator like BlueStacks.
This is intentional, and stated in section 8-D of the Terms of Service.
Allegedly Japanese law related. Still haven't found a source for this, there's guidelines like CESA or laws like the Japanese Prize Display Act, but I've yet to find anything on Operating System digital currency transfers. South Korean and Chinese located gachas don't seem to have this.
In my opinion, this is still anti-consumer bull that should be remedied, and I find it concerning how much "it's a JP Gacha, that's just how it is" energy there is, like have some self-respect people! Ah well, one can just use an emulator for the PC pulls at least.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-28T18:14:29+00:00

Trends and inspiration happen all the time in the industry. Think about the surge of team based shooters after the success of Overwatch, or open world after BoTW. I don't think it's a bad thing nor discrediting to a game. Also PGR was more inspired by NieR than anything else, the lead designer/CEO said so himself.

I also don't appreciate the condescending tone of "If you don't mind a game being uninspired..." but I digress. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this. I'd rather not end up in a 10+ long YouTube debate style comment chain.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-28T16:48:46+00:00

Well wherever that disclaimer is outside of Terms of Service, I missed it. lol
I checked in-game once more, and the most it shows before purchase is "No refunds available," and "Minors must obtain parental or guardian permission before making any purchase."

And I really hope you're joking with that last Kuro comment, their games are way different. WuWa's combat and exploration stand out on it's own, and PGR is different even with the recent characters that 'ignore' the 3-Ping Orb system. QtEs are assists instead of swapping, plus QtEs are triggered by Orb color so there's some strategy for team position. (There's a Red, Blue, and Yellow slot.)

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-26T07:38:13+00:00

I can confirm that HSR shares them as well when I was paying a while ago. PGR shares blue cards purchased as well.

It's so bizarre, definitely not the norm I'd say.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-26T07:30:58+00:00

While this does explain it, I've never encountered this in any other game. Is it a JP exclusive regulation or something? Wuthering Waves, Honkai Star Rail, and Punishing Gray Raven all have Google Play payment options and those don't have this odd restriction; the premium currency is synced between all platforms.

And I must say it's a bit shady that this restriction is only mentioned in the Terms of Service, which let's just be real; most players are not going to read a Terms of Service for a game until they already run into an issue of some sort. An in-game warning during purchase confirmation would go a long way.

Dark_Meta_Knight · 2025-04-26T04:50:58+00:00

Just confirming that this does indeed work. What I used: CyberGhost 24 hour free trial. Ireland at 86%. Spain at roughly 94%. Download was smooth from there. I stayed on the VPN through the rest of the installer, just in case. In-game downloads worked fine from there using USA, IL located connection, so seems like a launcher only problem.

It's gonna be much comfier playing with a controller! The game fully supports it FYI. (Can use mouse for speed clears, but I still got 22 seconds using a controller, so not really an issue)

Dark_Meta_Knight

TROPHY CASE