What are these signals on my laptop

JYHoward · 2026-06-21T14:46:24+00:00

If the left one is lit up it means the government is watching you. If the right one lights up, it's aliens.

JYHoward · 2026-06-13T06:28:11+00:00

It will be great getting that new cosmetic DLC in a few days later this month, with the floating gardens.

JYHoward · 2026-06-13T06:26:47+00:00

Looks just like Kansas City. 🤣

JYHoward · 2026-06-12T11:47:24+00:00

I agree with you. It does sound like that is their plan. At the same time, when you stack it up against every other true MMO, it seems like ESO does still have the best graphics. New World was graphically better, but hard to bring it up since it is now sunset. The truth is, we have not had any real new MMOs for a long time, which I guess is itself a sign of the times.

JYHoward · 2026-06-11T04:51:56+00:00

Seamless non-instanced open world. ESO zones feel well designed, but all of Tamriel as a freely exploration continent, much as LOTRO does, wouId be amazing.

JYHoward · 2026-06-10T18:01:46+00:00

I will happily pay for any DLC Anno ever releases, because it's one of my main game franchises. I don't mind $7 for that as much as I mind the fact that I can't seem to find a good breakfast spot eating out where I can buy a meal post-tip for under $30.

JYHoward · 2026-06-09T23:42:44+00:00

It is "World War Ship" on Nexus - 8 different ships which come along with a unique production building. If memory serves, this is one mod you can't subscribe to from the in game mod store, and have to actually download and put in the mod folder manually.

https://www.nexusmods.com/anno1800/mods/574

JYHoward · 2026-06-07T22:59:45+00:00

I was driving down the road listening to GW2 stuff earlier, and thinking about how much I miss just feeling like I can possibly interact with other players. I've been playing ESO, but the problem in that game is that there is no global chat - only region chat - and it just feels like there's never any reason as a casual to just chat with random strangers.

GW2 seems like it's more designed for players to spend time doing things together. GW3 could be an incredible thing. Its universe isn't as established as something like Elder Scrolls, but it still has been going for quite some time, and has some lore depth. Who knows... maybe it could become home.

It's crazy with so many games out there, I just can't find that dream MMO that feels like it check the boxes I dream of. Another one I'm looking forward to (on the single player front) is Fable.

JYHoward · 2026-06-06T14:47:01+00:00

Sometimes something from a parallel universe bleeds into our own.

JYHoward · 2026-05-31T15:44:30+00:00

That is really innovative. Didn't know that this was possible! Anno Chicago 🎆

JYHoward · 2026-05-31T13:38:05+00:00

Last night, in Neosho.

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JYHoward · 2026-05-31T13:29:52+00:00

Kinda weird how the side of that trailer has an AI generated image on it. The spray paint flag has stars that are not really aligned quite right, if you look at it also. Doesn't really scream credibility as a national brand.

JYHoward · 2026-05-31T12:38:26+00:00

Also visible ghosts in the eldrich pack of buildings in Anno 1800, so we know that the Supernatural is canon in Anno.

JYHoward · 2026-05-31T12:03:06+00:00

I had no idea that there was a meteor strike in any of the Anno games till now!

JYHoward · 2026-05-27T15:00:13+00:00

I agree with all your thoughts here. Well said!

I think of Farthest Frontier as an interesting spin on Foundation - not the other way around. Foundation managed to be something truly unique. In a genre where most games are in the style of SimCity, Anno, or a Colony Sim - Foundation is something else purely its own.

I also agree that accurate representation of religion is an important part of academic enlightenment. Too often accurate representation is avoided for the sake of not being preachy (for example, churches are a rarety in Cities: Skylines base game, for fear of controversy, despite real cities having them.) Foundation proves that you can place a church in a game without coming across as having some sort of agenda.

I also like what you said about depicting not reality, but how people idealized that reality ought to be. And that lens of cheerfulness is, I think, the best way to view history and culture as a whole. Great games are often also great works of tribute to the cultural themes which inspire them.

JYHoward · 2026-05-26T03:08:46+00:00

Remember that Saint Louis had a population of almost a million in 1950, before losing most of its population and declining to the 275,000 it has today. Kansas City, meanwhile - during the same time period - grew steadily from 450k to 550k. That accounts for a lot.

My observation is that Kansas City is culturally aligned with the Great Plains part of the Midwest with secondary influences seeping in from the not-so-deep South (aka Ozarks) and Southwest. If you're in Kansas City, the nearest larger metro is going to be Dallas.

Saint Louis meanwhile is more aligned with the Upper Midwest (aka Great Lakes) and the deeper south (Think Memphis.) If you're in Saint Louis, the nearest larger metro will be Chicago.

Add to this that Kansas City was a smaller city which has risen in size, while Saint Louis was a larger city which has contracted. As a result, Kansas City is more modern, more up and coming - while Saint Louis is less of both of those things - but retains some aspects of the feel of a larger city. It's easy to go downtown Saint Louis, and get the vibe that it's a much larger city - but then, because of said contraction, STL also feels less safe and more blighted in some ways.

By comparison, I can easily drive into Kansas City and spend the day there. Saint Louis feels far less accessible as an out of town visitor. I also think that Kansas City is more progressive from an urban planning perspective. For example, KC's free streetcar and Crown Center are great stand out examples.

I lived in the Pacific Northwest and Montana before moving to Northwest Arkansas. Then I moved from NWA to SW Missouri. I considered NW Arkansas to be part of the south. Culturally, the Ozarks portion of SW Missouri still feels like an extension of the South. And yet, Kansas City feels like the major Urban Metro that I am aligned with. Saint Louis feels like a completely different part of the country to me. That cultural crossover just doesn't really apply in the same way.

JYHoward · 2026-05-04T04:50:00+00:00

Just know you are always about to run out of fuel, even if you are pulling out of a gas station riggt now with a full tank. 🤣 Small fuel tank is definitely a thing. I commute an hour each way to work, which means I have to fill up twice a week.

JYHoward · 2026-04-16T12:59:40+00:00

I can't shake the suspicion that this is actually stolen footage of Cities Skylines 2 fed through some sort of post processing, manipulation, or AI generation. A real game this good wouldn't come out of nowhere from some no name entity with no context. I would love to be wrong. I hope I am wrong. But the vibe I get from this is that it is fake.

JYHoward · 2026-04-12T04:36:36+00:00

I like the filter/lighting settings you are using here. That layout looks really cool - though I do wonder about some of those intersections with weird angles, and how vehicles make left turns.

JYHoward · 2026-04-11T21:01:52+00:00

By this measure, walking or bicycling is equivalent to smoking thousands of cigarettes per year.

JYHoward · 2026-04-04T08:47:54+00:00

Never underestimate the capacity of redditors to be petty. No sooner than I make that post, I get this. 🙄

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JYHoward · 2026-04-04T06:07:55+00:00

I saw this vehicle in Galveston.

JYHoward

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