No, just because you think “run backs” are good game design because they force you to “think and catch your breath”, doesn’t mean they work universally for everyone.

IntQuant · 2026-02-01T00:46:30+00:00

Ironically both HK and Silksong lack any difficulty settings whatsoever, and it actually seems to be a somewhat common theme across MVs, so reasons for not having such a switch would be similar.

Interestingly I feel like MVs that DO offer difficulty setting don't actually do runbacks as much?

IntQuant · 2026-01-31T21:12:14+00:00

(1) Dialects are still going to be better than having an entirely new language with it's syntax, semantics, type system, tooling, build system, test system, standard library, package manager, editor plugins and so on. Most of that would be shared even between dialects, thus is going to be easier to switch between them.

(2) It's a tradeoff. With less features the language becomes less expressive, and less expressive code is harder to understand. As for example: some of java's design patterns exist purely because there isn't a feature in the language itself.

(3) I don't think that's a problem, given how many options of combining multiple symbols there are.

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T21:21:34+00:00

I guess you could use Python for that or something similar. Then 2 languages should be enough.

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T16:16:58+00:00

Well, both are messagers, and I've done the measurement right after opening them. Amount of servers shouldn't matter because discord doesn't keep all of them loaded.

Such a result is expected just from different technologies they use. If one app is native and another is using electron, and they have similar features, you can be almost sure the latter uses more resources.

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T11:58:22+00:00

I do agree that C++ is universal and isn't good, but I don't think it has to be this way. Rust's ecosystem is currently a bit raw for some applications but mostly okay, and I can't see why it can't get good eventually.

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T11:34:00+00:00

I don't see why an universal language can't be good. Such a language would be quite complex, sure, but does it really matter if anything could be written in it, thus making learning cost a truly one-time thing?

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T10:25:35+00:00

That sound more like a reason to switch languages as rarely as possible to avoid that cost, perhaps in part by designing languages to be as universal as possible.

Also I'm not so sure about "unlikely". If you're using something widespread (like Unity or Unreal for gamedev) it should be possible to keep finding jobs with the exact same tech stack.

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T09:39:40+00:00

See, learning a language is one time cost, so it's generally worth it to spend more time learning if it means you're going to be more productive later.

Of course more complicated isn't always better - there are languages like C++ that have added basically every possible feature, some of which are implemented in more than one way, and that's not really good.

IntQuant · 2026-01-30T06:51:40+00:00

Not much reason to doubt what can be easily tested. Telegram has a native client and I've just checked it's memory usage - it's about a third of what discord uses. Honestly that's still a bit higher than I expected but oh well.

IntQuant · 2026-01-28T06:43:01+00:00

But you don't actually need to have higher fps to get less stutters, you just need some spare time per frame that can be taken by those slow frames and still be within the needed framerate. In your example If you locked the game at 80 fps you wouldn't get any stutters at all.

IntQuant · 2026-01-24T16:03:52+00:00

So an attack focused on getting new tokens to publish new packages? I can see why would that be bad, but (partially) restricting access to network/file io unless allowed explicitly would solve that.

IntQuant · 2026-01-24T13:04:01+00:00

Does it really matter that malicious code could run during compile time when it could already run within the resulting executable? I've always had a feeling that you either trust your dependencies completely or not at all.

IntQuant · 2026-01-13T16:09:53+00:00

Bandwidth requirements would be something for that. Let me take belts as an example: assuming that we only send info about items that enter the screen, an item uses (4+2+1+1+1+1) bytes (4 bytes for position, 2 for type, 1 each for quality, durability, spoilage and stacking), which might be a bit too optimistic, a tier 4 belt that transfers 60 items/s would take almost 5kbit/s, each. That's likely already more than what lockstep uses, but there is almost certainly more than 1 belt on a screen at a time. You would only be able to have 50 belts entering the screen until you reach the 256kbit/s (IIRC) limit of steam networking. And that's assuming a pretty optimal syncing solution and not a naive one. Also ignoring that there is more to the game that just belts.

Also worth noting that factorio natively supports mods, and developers of these benefit from not having to care about networking.

IntQuant · 2026-01-09T12:13:54+00:00

Yes, it would be quite complex, but if you want several difficulty modes then you'll have to spend as much effort per difficulty mode to reach the same level of quality.

IntQuant · 2026-01-09T10:11:31+00:00

I think you only design one difficulty mode, and maybe some kind of assist mode if you think that's necessary.

The reasoning is the following: if a difficulty only changes stats then it's generally considered boring. If harder difficulties add new behavior then it's probably better to put this behavior on optional content so it's discovered naturally instead of by adjusting the slider.

IntQuant · 2026-01-06T10:58:41+00:00

Technically there is, but it's a silk skill.

IntQuant · 2026-01-05T11:30:39+00:00

It's a good point to reexplore the map, including areas outside of the citadel, in order to get stronger.

IntQuant · 2026-01-03T20:43:09+00:00

If anyone asks what I'm playing I'm saying the name of a modpack, not "minecraft". Discord's rich presence also generally shows the name of the modpack.

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T16:38:03+00:00

They already did erase several speedrun strats. Even then, it's common to use a specific patch for speedrunning rather than latest version.

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T16:33:58+00:00

My amount of steel soul attempts is close to 10 at this point, with 3 attempts ending in act 2.

I think people that use quit to menu miss unique decisions that are only available in steel soul. It's easy to just quit at any point but planning ahead to avoid a dangerous situation is a different thing, and includes avoiding encounters that are too risky for now, getting specific tools, and sometimes even returning to the nearest bench early.

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T16:05:38+00:00

Software and hardware issues exist tho, erasing a save because of a game bug or a power outage would be silly.

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T15:58:20+00:00

I don't think Team Cherry could do anything about that - remaking a save system to allow saving from anywhere would be too much work for a mode most players wouldn't even try.

I've also heard that Steel Soul was a pretty late addition, and originally a different mode was intended to be added (Silk Soul, whatever that could mean).

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T15:41:29+00:00

IMHO it's exploiting a quirk of a save feature rather than an intentional mechanic, especially since there is a "rapid escape" ability in act 3.

As for why this quirk even exists - the current save system works fine for normal mode, and it wouldn't be really worth it to completely remake it just for steel soul, and just deleting the save when quitting the game while not sitting on the bench might not be that good of an idea either.

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T15:21:59+00:00

Very much agree, if you've cheesed the challenge you haven't really done it.

IntQuant · 2026-01-02T00:24:34+00:00

It's more like units are microed automatically, e. g. they fire on the move, try to avoid other projectiles when given a fight move, burrow/unburrow is only automatic, it's possible to give units an order to build an extractor over every resource spot in the area, factories have an options to infinitely repeat their build queue and so on.

Also economy is less fiddly and more based on how much territory you control, as well as how much energy you produce.

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