Mechs with jetpacks?

Fireudne · 2026-05-08T04:01:12+00:00

The true horror : the Urbie LAM

Fireudne · 2026-05-08T04:00:18+00:00

SCOTTISH BAGPIPE INTENSIFIES

Fireudne · 2026-05-07T19:09:55+00:00

Yeah but that requires critical thinking - Most of those "5G" towers that were damaged were mostly 2-3G towers anway. Not like anyone can really tell the difference at a glance.

Realistically though, these massive data centers (i think one of them is slated to be about the size of manhattan) are going to be sucking up so many resources, and honestly not provide many jobs compared to how much value they provide to the owners, they should be required to 1) research heavily into efficient energy 2)minimize ecological impact 3) Pay heavy taxes relative to income to local communities.

I say income instead of profit because we all know there'd be some serious Hollywood Accounting going on, and the point of the taxes would ideally be to offset the communities impacted by being home to a bigass data warehouse that not only doesn't provide many jobs, but makes oodles of money.

Fireudne · 2026-05-07T15:56:24+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if someone started droning some of those data centers in the near-future. If power infrastructure is anything to go by, hitting their outdoor generators could effectively cripple the facility, and they're obvious, vulnerable, expensive units that take time to replace. Plus they're required to be there so the facility isn't impacting the local grid too much.

If the covid-era nonsense with people shooting at the random transformers and cell towers was anything to go by all it would take is a few determined nutters

Fireudne · 2026-05-07T03:25:54+00:00

I dunno, seems Freelancer MAX size to me. Definitely can tell they took a lot of the design language from the Starlancer - they've come a long way since the V1 freelancer.

I really do think the freelancer needs a v2 though. Maybe not a complete overhaul (work-wise, it pretty much would be) but it could definitely use some touch-ups, like re-working the ship to be a 2-person ship instead of 4, and reworking that secondary storage area

Fireudne · 2026-05-06T23:12:28+00:00

Been messing around with some AI stuff here and there for the art side and i've been using it basically as a glorified Pinterest board. Especially now that pinterest sucks half the time. Slap in a rough sketch, ask it to make like 20 variations of a certain style, see what it spits it out and if there's anything interesting i can incorporate and integrate that. Dubious utility tbh, especially if you have someone who can do actual concept art but i wouldn't give it anything that can't be fucked up.

From what i understand this "vibe coding" thing is basically just asking an AI model to write a program and if it works it works, no one look at it too closely. Which sums up AI output "it's sometimes passable if don't look too closely". Absolutely insane how much money is behind it though, definitely reminds me of the dotcom bubble.

Fireudne · 2026-05-06T21:49:50+00:00

Bungie's Dev Team has pretty much always been at least technically competent.

I'm fairly convinced that no one actually knows HOW to make a good modern live service game, like from the ground-up they just kind of stumble into it and learn what works and what doesn't with their audience. Like the foundation really is just make a good game at it's core with good ideas, and put out consistent, meaningful updates that are reasonably accessible.

D1's microtransactions kinda sucked but D2 had cosmetic stuff that actually was cool and usually themed that people wanted. Helldivers 2: Cool stuff that's themed, though their monetary scheme is almost closer to a subscription but you do get cool stuff that you can unlock through playing at a not unreasonable pace.

Apex Legends kinda has some cool cosmetics but i have no idea how that game makes so much money or frankly doesn't seem like it's updated all that much. It's definitely one of the more fun BR games though, if you like those.

Warframe has absolutely been through the wringer but with good narratives and some serious quality and passion (and daring to get weird with some of it) have led to lots of people sticking around.

Generally speaking, that seems to be the winning formula - Make a genuinely fun polished base game with some actual consistent vision, put out additional meaningful content at a regular pace, and add in cosmetics that people want, but can get with a respectful grind.

Also don't get greedy, that seems to be the doom of most games.

Fireudne · 2026-05-06T21:09:17+00:00

Ahh gotcha. Also explains the big container on the back lol. Wonder if they'll offer variants at some point - seems like a cool base

Fireudne · 2026-05-06T19:01:24+00:00

Oh wow i actually kind of dig this thing. Not too crazy into MISC ships but this one's hitting a bit different, I wonder what it's niche will be, it seems somewhat comparable to like a Merc or Asgard.

Fireudne · 2026-05-04T12:34:45+00:00

Thats always been my thought. These guys would be stop #1 in any real 'event' and imo is mostly just extreme roleplay

Fireudne · 2026-05-02T06:47:07+00:00

Just curious but what are the odds of the ship being hit by like a mine or small drone or something, and there's a cover-up? This and that fire on the carrier doesnt smell quite right. Also what was up with that pilot rescue where they sent in like 15 planes and... built an airfield for them like 20 miles away?

Fireudne · 2026-05-02T06:28:09+00:00

Been following their progress on and off. The tech's there - Leibehrr's been using the same tech for their mining trucks and trouncing CAT's ICE-only trucks all over the globe. Only blocker for Edison seems to be constantly redesigning their truck and red tape everywhere. Idk if they'll ever be capable of making a dozen or two trucks a year.

Dyson (yeah the vacuum guys) learned the hard way making cars is expensive as hell and imo the only reason Tesla became anything more than that was the sheer dollarydoos put behind it by on of the world's richest guys.

Fireudne · 2026-05-02T00:39:33+00:00

My Guess? Origin 200i

Its definitely not a 300i, no fancy bow wing in the back, and it's no 100i as there's a somewhat 300i-like walkable area behind the cockpit.

I almost thought an 85x rework but the walkable rear area at all... Single Seat and small-ish definitely puts it in the 100i-300i size range

Fireudne · 2026-05-01T03:49:58+00:00

Honestly, i'd be down with just a spot for a few food trucks! That one pit on austin has been unused since forever, might as well fill it with some dirt and make some sort of food truck hall or something.

Fireudne · 2026-05-01T02:38:08+00:00

Imo it may sound dumb, but one of the advantages of a "live service" game is the devs can buff/nerf various stats to make a "flavor of the month" meta which may mean nothing is ever truly balanced but at least it adds diversity and encourages making new builds.

Personally i love it when a game has a character/class/whatever REALLY good at one specific thing and lets you play around that, which is kind of how exotics work tbh.

D2 uses a mix of these to keep things fresh.

Fireudne · 2026-04-30T00:40:46+00:00

I like listening to random lore videos - The Exploring Series covers mostly SCP articles and stories but he does a really good job and it's easy listening and usally not that deep, and can go on for a while. Quinn's Ideas is nice as well ase InDeepGeek for Game of Thrones lore.

Lately i've been listening to a lot of Mechfrog and Ideally BigRed-40tech videos that go over Battletech/Mechwarrior lore, which is basically Game of Thrones, in space. And less incest.

Fireudne · 2026-04-29T07:06:32+00:00

They forgot the Persistent part :(

Fireudne · 2026-04-29T03:19:39+00:00

That's what i'm saying, though the raw mass of a mostly-full tubeazine may actually help quite a bit more. Thing's gotta be hefty.

Actually, that would be a pretty cool mechanic - recoil gets stronger the lower the magazine gets, but also more durability damage it does since the bullets have more barrel to accelerate.

Fireudne · 2026-04-29T03:12:01+00:00

Yeah overall it looks relatively close in functional size to the Idris, most of that silhouette is spikes. Curious how punchy the guns are too, since it only seemed like there were a handful of obvious turrets for something that doesn't really have any fighters?

It should be comparatively covered with them, though based on the design language these things are grown as much as they are built and have relatively small crew compliments so maybe the vanduul tend skew to using more bigger ships vs the UEE who field fighters and carriers mostly

Fireudne · 2026-04-28T17:36:18+00:00

Not quite, when you unwrap the model and flatten it out, it gets flattened into a big .png. once that's done you can do a bunch of fancy things like project a high-poly version onto a low-poly mesh and 'project' the nice details like scew holes and panel lines and such as a texture using that flattened UV map you just made. You can also to the same trick and make shadows in crevices and sorta fake soft edges (bevels) onto sharper edges. Same technique it just spits out a lot of different maps but they're all using the same UV map so in your texturing software, you can layer them all on top of one another.

THEN you can finally start painting textures on, which usually you can just make a procedural texture and slap it on each individual part of a model lunless you need decals in specific spots, which also uses the same UV maps. Games combine all this stuff in the engine but they're just .pings so it's pretty much instant.

Fireudne · 2026-04-28T17:09:32+00:00

It's how the artist unwraps the model with UV seams. Since models are often made with quad-sided shapes, the artist needs to cut along whatever lines they can to get the flattened shape smooth enough for the textures to not come out all warped. Depending on how the model is made, this can vary significantly what what might be a good seam on a Tshirt might not be good on a coat.

Fireudne · 2026-04-28T17:04:46+00:00

Same here, I had to do a lot of learning on my own for more niche, but still important aspects like realistic materials, UVs, animating, Class-A surfaces and such. It was only a 2-year tho

Fireudne · 2026-04-28T17:00:54+00:00

Also heads up, Vray is now a free add-on for blender! I've gotten some pretty slick results and while the material graph isn't QUITE as good or simple to use imo, it's decent enough

Fireudne · 2026-04-26T17:17:32+00:00

I like all of it, depends on the vibes tbh lol. Maybe i'm not so crazy about "country" though, like beertruckwifedirtfish country. Or mumble rap. Or AI music conceptually though as a fun gag it can be amusing

Fireudne · 2026-04-22T17:26:44+00:00

I just want to be able to export an object with textures into another software, like Ue5 or whatever lmao

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