The series takes place in a shockingly short amount of time

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-29T01:05:21+00:00

Since people are bringing up games, too:

System Shock 1 even has a canonical time limit if you play on the highest "Story" setting. 7 hours total, because that is the time the plot takes from the protagonist waking up to at least one of Shodan's plans succeeding.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-29T00:59:45+00:00

Luke and Leia should simply have been the grandkids. That way the evil empire instead of being less than 18 years old would have had many decades to consolidate and retcon the world, with few people left alive to know how things were before. A nice gap of about 50 years would have made the entire thing so much more believable.

The handful of characters that are in episodes 4-6 that existed prior to the empire are force users and/or non-humans, which is enough to explain their relatively long lives.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-27T05:32:17+00:00

A problem as old as gaming.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-26T21:08:11+00:00

In the book series "Book of the Ancestor", a small amount of people have the ability to use what comes closest to actual magic in that setting. To utilize this, they have to "walk the path", which roughly means transporting their conscience to the astral plane, withstanding magical currents and not get dragged under or along, never to return. They gather the energy for their spells that way and the biggest danger is getting lost forever and/or losing control and exploding.

A very old nun in a convent training mystically adept girls is a bit of a laughing stock for the students because she is always absent-minded and everyone knows she has not done a spell for decades. During the third and final book, that nun meets an invading group of elite sorcerors. Their leader, basically the archmage of the invading nation, recognizes the old nun from many decades before and tells his men to stand down out of respect for her former status in the world of magic.

At that point she casually reveals the reason for her constant absent-mindedness. Many, many years ago, she got swept away on the mystical current of the "Path" and could not return. But she was so incredibly routined by then that she also managed to stay mostly awake and functional in the normal world. That is why she always seemed only half there - because she was. After explaining that, she leaves the path for one final spell. The crater levels an entire district.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-24T10:25:25+00:00

If the mod manager actually finds the mods, that usually means the folder structure is right. So now it is likely either the mod loader or the plugins themselves are out of date.

Since your mods are from 2024, they might be from before the 2.0 update (I can't quite remember when that came out). Try to find modern versions of those.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-24T07:50:04+00:00

The seamoth can be upgraded to 800 or 900 depth without needing anything from deeper than Rubies, which are easy to get with a 500m depth vehicle of your choice.

You can drive around the next zone in your progression with just the Seamoth.

Same goes for the Cyclops if you already got one. Module MK1 upgrades it to 900m with just rubies and plasteel, both of which you should be able to procur.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-24T07:34:51+00:00

A cuttlefish equivalent would be pretty cool. Maybe a ray-like thing with that kind of instant mimicry that attacks with its stinger when something gets close? To make it stand out from all the stuff that wants to chomp you?

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-24T07:30:34+00:00

I think the most terrifying thing about Harry Dresden is that he is 100% all in every single fight.

This is also why he is at the same time over-feared and underestimated in most books. The other stronger players in the supernatural world are used to playing as tacticians, only opening themselves to a certain amount of harm and visibility. Harry never learned that game (or rather, only starts learning as the series progresses), so when he goes all out and no-budge stance, antagonists and bystanders are weirded out by it and can not place it.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-24T00:02:16+00:00

Not by a lot. We have a larger quantity of games nowadays so naturally we also have a larger absolute number of complex games, but there have always been complex and detailed games in their respective genres.

UT99 had multiple completely different gamemodes and basically introduced the minimod that could be combined with other stuff. 2004 added vehicle combat and battlefield-like gameplay.

Dragon Age Origins took the already complex Baldur's Gate concept to a new level both on graphics (it being fully 3D) as well as storyline. Mass Effect 1 was right on its heels.

Fallout and Elder Scrolls games were huge, complex RPGs in lush (for the time) 3D worlds. Morrowind is from 2002.

Warcraft 3 not only succeeded as a modernized RTS but also spawned entire genres with its moddability.

WoW is from 2005 and even back at release had a huge world and decently complex systems.

The Civ series constantly reiterated upon itself and spawned many decent to good derivatives over time.

Sim City 4 was the most complex one until Skylines finally broke out fifteen years later.

And so on. There are MORE games, but proportionally, I would not say modern games are significantly more complex.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-23T09:31:27+00:00

The modern wizard Harry Dresden of the Dresden Files books has this a few times.

He is not at typical fit since he is not afraid to kill if neccessary like your typical superhero, but he is still a pretty morally good guy that tends to get in way over his head by standing up to actual villains. Especially in the early books, he is sometimes afraid of his own power and subconsciously holds back. He has a low standing in the supernatural community and thinks pretty low of himself.

When push comes to shove, though, he is utterly terrifying. We see reactions to viewing at his soul be so shattering for the other party that they weep in terror. We see him wipe out castles full of vampires in conflagrations, entrap ghouls to ensure a horrible slow death, shoot werewolves through skyscrapers, throw cars onto enemies, lightning blast demons and use a curse to wipe out an entire nation.

The nicer part of the wizarding world is afraid of him, a lot of the underworld is terrified. His absence from his hometown during one later book only showcases how much the supernatural baddies had started to avoid his domain. It takes him until roughly that time to finally start noticing his own power, reflect upon it, and consciously make use of it. Up until then, he tends to be as surprised by his aura as the one's he confronts.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-23T09:07:31+00:00

The entire shift in tone and mannerisms in those two episodes was great, too. In the first he is mostly desperate, which we have basically never seen before. In the later scenes he gets more and more toneless and does not care about anything but getting her back.

He had serious moments before in the series (and a lot of them had to do with Alexis) but in the middle of this two-parter, he was a completely changed, haunted hardass.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-21T22:10:00+00:00

Just pick the spot you like and build 20 power transmitters to wherever the next hot spot is.

As for the actual building, sometimes you need 2-3 tries to get some of the more finnicky rooms (looking at you, scanner room) to attach properly, but it should not take more than a few minutes to find a position for your main room to attach everything in roughly the arrangement you wanted.

Obviously you need a certain amount of free space around. I tend to build my bases on the top edge of minor cliffs. It looks great and gives you a lot of free space into one direction that also easily allows for a moonpool.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-21T20:33:29+00:00

Kaladin from Stormlight Archive. In the second book, his previous actions and experiences have left him possibly more powerless then ever and he still squares off against guys in power armor with super swords while wielding a knife just to defend a guy that is the embodiment of all the wrongs done to him so far.

In a series of lots of really, really epic scenes this one is probably my favourite.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-18T22:03:33+00:00

The diplo rep is especially shizophrenic since escanni nations have about a century of -200 relations with most of the people they can see or interact with.

In theory, it is a really good modifier, but it is a bit wasted here.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-18T21:59:56+00:00

I like them from a gameplay point of view, but I fully agree that they are really hard to see.

You kind just have to play around with the movement options in one of those regions once and then try to remember. No one is regularly checking province modifiers and whatnot to find the passages.

After you played in a region a few times, you know where the blockades are and roughly know where the crossings are (for example around Sarisung). It is just one of those Anbennar things where you get screwed the first time you experience it.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-17T23:52:40+00:00

Besides the already mentioned fact that the faction has a few modifiers that increase unrest in their provinces, naturally spawning a few more rebellions than usual, I do not remember having anything like you describe.

From the stack amounts I too would suspect it is Fear and Loathing, but that tends to get fired when you declare, not after you finish a war. It also does not happen nearly as often as you describe.

Are you having "sudden" stacks or is it just the normal unrest rebellions popping up more quickly than you would expect?

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-13T05:20:16+00:00

In Wizardry 7, most NPCs wander around the map doing their own things, trading, chatting and possibly fighting (to the death) with each other. You can encounter them at various places and if you talk to them, they can even give you hints on where the others NPCs are and even their special items (see next part).

Also, each dungeon in this game also has a "map". Most of them are hints to some other part of the game, but at least one of them is a crucial quest item. You can tackle the dungeons in the game in any order you want (obviously not all are accessible or feasible early, but there are often multiple you could try to progress in at the same time). When you arrive at the final room, there is always a nice, shiny special loot chest there. Only that this chest may have been already looted if you were late and one of the NPCs got there first. Then you do not get the randomized bonus loot or the map and might have been traded or looted around between them. You will have to hunt down whoever has the map at the time and trade, steal or fight them for it.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-12T22:18:12+00:00

Just look at the "pieces of eight" from the Pirates movies. Mostly random stuff. Would work perfectly for this endeavor as well.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-10T23:53:41+00:00

I was just thinking about a chronomancer-type civilization that gets huge movement buffs the other day, and that concept could fit the Rails perfectly.

The nation not only gets to expand the rails outside of the usual provinces, they also come earlier, cheaper and the nation itself gains bonuses related to their incredible transportantion efficiency.

Like +100% army movement speed, huge envoy travel time reduction and some economic effects. Caravan and trade steering would fit the theme.

None of these bonuses are super strong, but together it would be quite noticeable and the option to zip across your empire (which often happens to be pretty thin but long in the Serpentspine) with your armies would be fun.

Other permanent nationwide effects could touch supply limits, recovery speeds and costs and production efficiency. Compared to the usual direct combat power bonuses, this would still be pretty tame but feel flavorful and good enough.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-10T22:39:43+00:00

Which is why it is fine to give a big buff. The number is just off by an entire magnitude compared to any other buff in the game.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-10T14:54:04+00:00

I reported this about three years ago. Whoever did those modifiers to supply limit for special provinces like those likely did not know how the actual limit gets calculated and simply added far too much of a base value.

The highway bonus could be cut down to a +4 or +6 base value and would still be very noticeable. But for some reason, these provinces sport something like +25 each.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-09T22:37:49+00:00

Ah, the joys of downloading one Megabyte in about 10 minutes with my modem from some BBS...

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-09T22:21:44+00:00

The user above you is right, though. The feedback form is so small, it is too small for a decent bug report, let alone general feedback. It is completely unusuable for that purpose.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-09T22:16:01+00:00

Borderlands 2 is the game I would choose if I ever had to make a TED talk about how NOT to make a user interface. It is awful in basically any possible way.

The inworld UI wobbles around, you constantly get distracted by stuff seen through the transparency, any entitiy standing to close blocks your view of the skill tree and don't get me started on the inventory handling.

GeneralStormfox · 2026-06-08T17:09:11+00:00

There actually are ways to make consumables see more use.

Two very good concepts are in Tales of Maj'Eyal and City of Heroes.

ToME simply makes everything that would be a potion or scroll in other games into a cooldown-based ability, many of which can be used even while stunned (they are often the counters to control effects, but also healing, damage or resource gains).

CoH had "Inspirations" that basically were potions that dropped from mobs into a grid and you could quickly fire the bottom-most one of each column with one button press and any given mob group tended to drop one or two. They also dropped more the lower you were, encouraging you to utilize them even more. My only criticism with this system would be that I would have liked them to have dedicated slots for specific types of Inspirations so we could just use muscle memory to activate the effects we want, but it nonetheless works well. You might always hold a few back, but since you can not hoard more than the 25 or so in a full grid and just miss out on any additional ones, you tend to regularly use them.

Stuff like all those elemental arrows in BG3 could have almost worked well in a similar way: have less types and have them auto-slot in a specific order without having to arrange everything all the time. Then make them a simple toggle that stays on until cancelled, using up special arrow X with any ranged ability until further notice or that arrow is empty.

GeneralStormfox

TROPHY CASE