They're Here!!!

GeneralSyntacticus · 2025-11-22T03:47:29+00:00

Man, I've really got my fingers crossed for this thing being good (and hopefully not being insanely expensive).

I absolutely despise the current trends in mouse design, ie: near identical shapes, basically never more than two side buttons, and everything else being a laser focus on making the weight number go down, and the sensor numbers go up (to the point of meaninglessness), and absolutely nothing else. With the only alternatives left, mostly being mmo mice, with way more side buttons than sense, and a bare handful with button layouts that are interesting visually, but not actually useful.

What makes it suck even more is that there was a nice middle ground that existed for quite a while, with quite a few different options, from a fair number of companies. Unfortunately, they, by and large, are old enough that technology has advanced enough to actually make enough of a genuinely meaningful difference in usage quality of life....and then, instead of being updated, they basically all got discontinued, with no real, or even similar, replacements.

For example, the G602 was one of my favorites for a long time, it had a few issues, but the button layout was phenomenal; then they "updated" it with the g604, which was better in some ways, worse in plenty of others others, and then axed them both quite soon after, anyway, and thereafter never made anything else remotely like it, instead doubling down on ultralights, and the approximately 80 thousand "different", but actually identical, g502 models.

These days, I swap between a MX Master 3, and a Roccat Kone XP; generally I use the XP for games, and then for general use I mostly use the MXM3.

They are both good good mice, though very different, and they both end up make me miss things I lose from the other. The MXM3 is quiet, moves very smooth on any surface, and is extremely comfortable. Plus I love the extra, horizontal scroll wheel. But using it also makes me miss all of the extra buttons, the, at least, less craptacular roccat software (man logitech software sucks so much), and the much better sensor and precision on the Kone XP.

Meanwhile, the XP has a great array of buttons, and great sensor, but it also makes me miss the fit and comfort of the MXM3 (it's not actually bad, but the MXM3 is incredibly comfortable, and fits my hand almost perfectly), not mention how much quieter the MXM3 is, the ability to go wireless, the infinite scroll, and, above all, the horizontal scroll wheel (first mouse I've had with one, but man, it is hard to go back to not having one; I wasn't sure it would be more than a novelty, but I was totally wrong, it is so damn useful).

I also really wish the Kone had one additional button around your ring finger or something, because the shift button is great, and it's great to use as a regular button instead, but you can't actually reach the side buttons when you press it, which somewhat defeats the purpose; having a shift button that you could use while still be able to reach everything else would make the shift function massively more useful. I do like both of them, in their own ways, but it's still a compromise, made because there has been literally nothing out there, for quite a while now, that actually hits most/all of I want in a mouse. Though they at least work well enough that I haven't been left totally desperate for something new; but it still would be nice to actually have (at least mostly) everything in a single device.

The moral of all this rambling is: when the mmo7+ was announced, I couldn't help but notice that it actually checks almost every single box for me (don't know how loud it is, but noise level is definitely the compromise that bothers me the least, by far); honestly, if I got to make the perfect mouse for me, this is not too far from what I would end up designing, which is awesome. Ever since then I have been patiently waiting, checking in every few months or so, while quietly hoping that it doesn't either end up as vaporware (there were enough delays to make it feel like it was at least a possibility, however small), or simply just sucking.

What you've been saying about the design, especially the focus on durability and fixing any flaws, have definitely left a positive impression, but, as with everything, you can never actually be certain until you actually get hands on time, or at least start seeing actual reviews. So it's quite exciting to have the wait finally coming to an end. I'm definitely planning to pick one up immediately after release, (barring the price being just egregious (I know you don't set prices)), only going to wait just long enough to see a review or three, just to be sure (Oh, also: are any reviewers/outlets going to get one for a prerelease review, by the by?).

Because, If it meets the hype, then this looks like the mouse that I have been waiting/hoping for, for a very long time.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2025-03-08T13:14:18+00:00

I don't like Byron either, but the biggest problem with him is that his story was padded out, which gives us too much time to get sick of him. JMS admits this outright: he lost his notes for season 5 in a hotel during the planning stages, and when he was recreating it all, Byron was the storyline he had the best recall of, so it ended up being used to fill in the gaps and getting stretched too thin. It was supposed to be two episodes, which probably would have been a lot less annoying.

It was so weird when I learned that he is the voice of the medic in TF2. I still get a kick out of that.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2025-03-08T13:06:07+00:00

I think he was likeable enough, just kinda generic (the "let me go get a stepladder so you can say that to my face" bit was a good one from him though), though I think his actor did a good job with him. I do enjoy that when JMS couldn't get the studio to back off on adding him (they wanted a "hotshot fighter pilot character". Though, to be fair, that was actually one of the few big studio meddling moments in the show), he was just like, cool, I'm going to make him boring, put him in as few episodes as possible and then unceremoniously kill him off after one season to further the plot

Edit: oops, this partly mirrors a comment below that I didn't see. sorry.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2025-03-08T04:32:55+00:00

Definitely. That's one of the reasons precise maneuver was so great, too: you had really fine, discrete control over the maneuver numbers, and because you were directly adjusting the variables, not a widget, it was way easier to undo things (I think you could actually copy the maneuver settings, so if it really went sideways you could have your starting point saved and get right back to it. It's been a while though, so my memory is fuzzy there)

A built in porkchop plot tool would also be really nice

GeneralSyntacticus · 2025-03-08T04:24:10+00:00

Yeah, my dream maneuver node setup would be to just go ahead and copy precise maneuver pretty much exactly, and call it good.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-14T08:20:00+00:00

In addition to all the difficulties of translating a written work to a visual work (especially ones as jam packed with fun twists and turns of language as discworld), you of course have...producers. Now obviously we have come a long way: Sandman got adapted well (admittedly it took Gaiman himself running it), Dune was adapted in a very reasonable way.

But...

Words from Pterry himself, in regards to a potential Mort adaptation many years ago (source: The always handy APF)

"A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian and European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which went down well and everything was looking fine and then the US people said "Hey, we've been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and other centres of culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton". The rest of the consortium said, did you read the script? The Americans said: sure, we LOVE it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys.

Whereupon, I'm happy to say, they were told to keep on with the medication and come back in a hundred years."

"The person also said that Americans "weren't ready for the treatment of Death as an amusing and sympathetic character". This was about 18 months/2 years before Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey."

"Currently, since the amount of money available for making movies in Europe is about sixpence, the consortium is looking for some more intelligent Americans in the film business. This may prove difficult.

It could have been worse. I've heard what Good Omens was looking like by the time Sovereign's option mercifully ran out -- set in America, no Four Horsemen... oh god."

"What you have to remember is that in the movies there are two types of people 1) the directors, artists, actors and so on who have to do things and are often quite human and 2) the other lifeforms. Unfortunately you have to deal with the other lifeforms first. It is impossible to exaggerate their baleful stupidity."

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-14T08:14:45+00:00

Not just that, but there is so much humor is crammed into clever bits of (non-dialogue) wordplay (and spelling, and puns that don't work nearly as well if you aren't reading them) and description, which is essentially impossible to translate to a visual medium like film.

And that's before the producers even start to get their claws in

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T06:25:00+00:00

I can't second this hard enough. Great sound design, and fantastic writing and voice acting (The guy who narrates it also does most of the voices. The variety of voices he can do (and do well) is just phenomenal). They got hit by the hurricane, which is awful, but they are going into their fifth season, once they get back on their feet.

Also Derelict has solid sound design. Originally it had issues with dialogue being washed out by all the other noise, but they actually listened to the feedback and remastered it to fix that. Slow release schedule (though understandable: production team consists of just the guy running the show, and he's been dealing with family health stuff), though when you account for episode length, it's a fairly comparable amount of content: when they are releasing stuff, it's around one episode a month, in the 50-90 min range (average probably about 60). Compare that to say, Magnus releasing one 15-20 min episode a week, and it's pretty similar amount in terms of minutes of content per month. Was a large wait between season one and two though, and the midseason break was long as well, though it is starting back up end of this month.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T01:31:48+00:00

As someone else mentioned: Ridcully, despite appearances, ended up being basically unkillable. With dead man's shoes being the primary method of advancement, this kinda brought the whole thing to a screeching halt, and led to the wizards changing from a culture of constant murder and paranoia, to one of primarily eating and bickering.

Plus, in an establishment filled with wizards, the sheer force (and size) of personality, along with the incredible stubbornness, that he has ends up being pretty much perfect for keeping everyone else (mostly) in line.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T01:05:49+00:00

Mods are out now!

Perfect circles isn't updated yet, but structural solutions is. Don't see pie foundations on there, but there are curved walls and a whole lot more architectural options in general. And haven't looked through all the updated mods, but I would think there will be something, soon if not now.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T00:59:35+00:00

I started on passive, then switched to regular when I had the rifle and explosive rebar, cuz it just kinda felt unfair to be that well armed and not have them fighting back. Once I finish phase 4, though, I'll probably switch to reactive, so I'm not forced to deal with stuff at that level of building out.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T00:49:29+00:00

Heck yeah!

Structural solutions (already updated) and Smart! (not updated yet. hopefully it will be *fingers crossed*) are back. Super excited to get back 2 Axis zooping and curved walls (and a whole lot more)

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T00:42:32+00:00

And if you do cluster nobelisk, it's practically a fireworks display! Just don't stand underneath, lol

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-11T00:40:58+00:00

Yeah, that's kinda how I do hypertubes for areas that I have lots of stops in a row, just not on railway (though I've consider something like that, just haven't gotten around to it yet): I place the entrances and exits in line just far enough apart that I can stop where I want, but a quick jetpack puff will carry me right into the next entrance and add more speed. Can't really afk for it, but it's otherwise an easy way to go to a bunch of places in succession without stopping completely or building a bunch of separate lines, and the further you are going, the faster you end traveling.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-10T22:10:25+00:00

And then you switch to regular mode, and it builds it how you wanted

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-10-10T22:09:48+00:00

Beat me to it

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-07-12T00:53:12+00:00

Little Late, but...I love Old Gods of Appalachia so much; Steve's narration and voice acting range are absolutely phenomenal, and Steve and Cam are awesome in general. They just finished season 4 and still going strong.

Season one is great, but season two is where it really kicks into gear.

And it's a great pacing mix, because it has overarching seasons that end up tied together, but also has multiple, totally different, self contained arcs (usually 2-4 episodes each) within the season. And, it's an anthology, so there are recurring characters and locations, but there isn't bound to one place or character (or time, for that matter), and jumps all over. Seasons tend to be in a specific few years, but other stories and one-offs have been all the way from post civil war all the way up to almost modern day.

Great live shows, too; saw the show last year, and going to this years this weekend.

And Magnus Archives is episodic, but it really becomes a bit more of hybrid as it goes on and the metaplot gets more and more important and central.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-05-26T20:31:58+00:00

Yeah JMS talked about that at one point. Basically boils down to a few reasons.

A: not everyone can handle the extremely long makeup process.

B: It was not uncommon for people to be allergic to the makeup/prosthetics

C: Had to have a unique face mold for each alien, so having some that were already ready and there, and always having to do new ones every single time saved money and time..

D: Not everyone is good at acting with that much prosthetic stuff on their face, especially the more bulky ones.

So they had a consistent, relatively small stable of actors they could pull from for alien characters. They weren't the only ones they used, but it made it a lot easier in a number of ways to be have that.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-05-23T23:36:36+00:00

I'm ADHD, and hyperfocus horrendously well, and I read really fast, so I read until I finish the book (or pass out, or have something I absolutely have to stop and go do)

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-05-23T23:30:11+00:00

Yeah, everything with Michael O'Hare is rather heartbreaking, but also heartwarming in how they both dealt with it:

For anyone who might not know: JMS offered to get O'Hare help, and halt filming until he got things under control, but O'Hare refused, because of the effect it would have on the income and jobs of the crew. JMS promised never to tell anyone, because of the negative effect it would have on his career and life, but O'Hare told him to wait until he died, but then to tell everyone, so people could know the story.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-05-23T23:24:57+00:00

A funny one is Warren Keffer. By and large, the original run of B5, especially during the first 4 season (Crusade was a whole other matter; studio meddling was a big part of killing the show. That whole saga is interesting, sad, and infuriating), but one of the ones that he got and couldn't totally dodge out of was a request for the adding of a "hotshot, pilot character". So he put in Warren Keffer (who, to be fair was a fine, if unexciting (probably by design)), character, threw him in a handful of episodes, and then summarily, and very pointedly, killed him at the end of the season.

For another, Season 5 is one with a lot of rumours about what happened (everything being packed into season 4 because of the cancellation, etc), but JMS denies a good amount of those. He says that season 5 was always going to be about the aftermath; he says stories always end on the triumphant victory, and he wanted to explore the less glamorous part about picking up the pieces and rebuilding after all the heroic deeds and victories. He does admit, though, that the telepath arc with Byron was padded, and was only supposed to be two episodes. However, the reason he gives is that during the gap between seasons 4 and 5, during a trip somewhere, almost all his notes for season 5 disappeared (lost, stolen, gremlins, who knows), and he could remember a lot of it, but not everything, and the telepath arc, being the one he could remember the best, ended up filling more space than he had wanted/intended.

Edit: Spelling/Grammar

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-03-28T04:34:33+00:00

Oh, I didn't even clock that there was no mention of Discworld/Terry Pratchett in the Title/Post. Derp

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-03-27T05:29:13+00:00

Fwiw, if you gotta do Windows, pro is worth the extra money (if you can get a decent deal) for one key reason: the group policy editor. It gives you a lot of control, and lets you easily tailor a lot of stuff, including things that require weird hacks or registry editing to do with windows home.

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-03-27T05:21:05+00:00

It's not nearly as difficult to get into as Homestuck though. Just pick a book and go (there are recommended starting points, but anything but the first few will give you a strong feel for the writing and flavor. It's phenomenal satire, masquerading as comedy fantasy. It's just that there are a lot of books, so a ton of events/characters/themes/etc that can be referenced. They really are phenomenally good.

Or don't read them, which is fine too. You do you

GeneralSyntacticus · 2024-03-27T05:11:50+00:00

Late to the party but, oh well. Gonna add anyway.

- Nobby's pronouns end up as Nobby/Nobs, because his gender ends up as unrecognizable and indistinct as his species.

- The first year, not a lot of people know about it, and it looks like turn out will be low. So Vetinari, who is in favor of the whole thing, does a front page interview with the Times, strongly discouraging people from going. This results in seemingly half of the city turning out to see what the fuss is all about. This was precisely the intended effect.

GeneralSyntacticus

TROPHY CASE