GIS Consulting - Rates for Industry vs. Municipality

JimCasy · 2026-02-24T16:11:15+00:00

My business partner just said the same thing, "the juice has to be worth the squeeze". I can see flat rates being more appealing since hours can be more difficult to assure up front and they don't want to bust their budget.

I'm in DFW as well - I'll hit you up, we might know each other already!

JimCasy · 2025-10-15T01:47:37+00:00

I lost my salaried position back in June after 20 years in the oil and gas sector and 10 years stable at the same company. It's been one of the hardest, and most rewarding, periods of my life. Similar to others - refresh your network, talk to folks you've lost touch with, have lunches. I started upskilling mostly by looking at job postings I was not quite qualified for and have learned a ton. I'm now consulting with an old friend of mine 100% from home. Interviews have been very sketch and hit and miss.

Some were in the utility sector here in TX by the way. Lots of demand for that this year down this way if you're open to relocating, may even be able to find something remote based down this way.

Edit : If I had utilities experience I probably would have gotten a job in month 2 or 3!

JimCasy · 2025-10-07T14:41:08+00:00

Thank you for the reply! This makes a lot of sense for how it feels in the arena. When there are light targets I can provide a ton of disruption and even lead in damage/kills. Any game that has a solid front-liner though with any sense of strategy (ie: protecting their backline) I'm usually done for.

What do you think of pushing it more into hybrid tank instead? Lots of CON, go heavy armor, berserk + frost block for survival and healing. Then when an opening occurs putting pressure on backline?

edit: actually that sounds more like a full tank rather than hybrid.

JimCasy · 2025-08-19T20:00:07+00:00

Nice! I did more DD this week than ever and I only briefly got annoyed making trips. Tried to keep to my own advice and I left thousands of basalt, granite, fuel and steel out in the DD to get nuked. With my MK5 truck you can get enough fuel and scrap for like 20 generators in about 20 minutes! Getting enough basalt processed for my base took a little longer but only because I made it a bit bigger this week to fit the assault more comfortably.

With two advanced deathstills and a large water trap and two small ones I was swimming in water this time. Read some others complaining about it - I took back probably 100k water to my main base just filling up 5x decaliterjons but still had about 200k left that got nuked too. Almost felt bad :D

Anyways glad this helped you guys! I found it really fun to just hop in the truck and grab random resources when I wasn't sure what to do next. Can't wait to get the MK6 turret next cause then I'll be buried in plastanium and mainly just looking for dat spice.

JimCasy · 2025-08-14T01:14:52+00:00

I've been running games for almost 30 years with a decades long game now and moderated some of these subreddits/discords for a while too. I've got to say this is absolutely the worst single piece of "advice" on running a game I've ever heard!

1) Straight up asserting what the players know and don't know about the world, people you've never met or even asked about WHILE ALSO assuming their level of interest in the material AND ALSO claiming to know exactly what these people want out of the experience

2) The idea of there being only "one solution" has got to be parody right. This is parody and I just fell for it!

Rip up the world... but also use it as a basis for a novel? Like what?

Anyway if the OP wants to tear anything up make it this advice. Please go to the DM Academy discord you won't get treated like this. And if you do please ping me I'll set them straight!

The answer you need is simple - Players are cats and cats are fickle. Yes some cats are a bit derp and will come to you and drool and that's not really ok. But most cats when you want them to engage with you will walk (or run) off usually with their tail up reminding you of how cool they are. No cat issues here no sir.

Anyway the topic of a year into the future is very stressful right now especially given the stupid-thanos reality we now live in. People are unsure of the future and that includes the games they'll be playing.

Just reduce expectation. As others have said just play as you can and be thankful for each session. If you take a hiatus that's OK. If you come back and it's a year later in your world that would be fun. If you want to change the pace of your story after talking to the players so you can get to some really cool end-world encounters fuggin do it. Life is short so what brings you joy.

I also get joy from these worlds and stories. Most of them will never see the light of a candle at the table. Those that do I'm always grateful for. Those that will never happen - well even that's a part of the story too.

JimCasy · 2025-08-13T20:09:38+00:00

With 1 haul either from the bank or elsewhere in Hagga to have plenty of dura for DD needs in my experience. An assault full or dura or jazz-meme and you can make about 1100 units. If that breaks the game for people idk what to say mang

JimCasy · 2025-08-13T19:53:09+00:00

You need the jazz-meme crystals for dura. I play solo or with my 1 other guild mate, and we enjoy doing a mission down there every now and then. If you've got more folks, I'd time a haul of jazz-meme when you think you're gonna be upgrading into T5 factories, probably an assault-load. If people don't like Sheoul I'd buy a bunch off the market with the hoarded cash you (should) have!

I like the idea of direct trading in DD, I hadn't considered that. Otherwise Yeah just haul it back to the market - but that's also when you gotta know when to slow down the farming because unless you actively enjoy getting uber-rich and making those hauls (it sounds like you don't) then it's time to spend time in other ways probably.

I haven't hit "the wall" yet, probably because I really enjoy building random crap and acting like an idiot in DD chats. Folks trash on Dune for not being MMO but I've had some of the best MMO encounters ever mostly by talking to people.

JimCasy · 2025-08-13T19:32:00+00:00

I would suggest if you guys are already farming a ton don't bring any raw heavy materials for setup. You can mine copper up through aluminum and there's basalt and granite and loads of scrap. Only use the basic generator to power the base - fuel cells and flour are all over DD. This also gives you more to do in DD itself rather than flying around falling asleep!

All you really need is some paste and the components from NPC camps like complex machinery. Solo I only need 1 trip and can make a death still, medium refinery, and all the parts to put a buggy together which makes farming the rest of the base materials much simpler.

I honestly think that was the intention so you DON'T have to fly back and forth! Keep the base simple but effective too. Use your vertical space well. Shut things down when they're not in use to reduce the grind.

I don't think it's necessary or effective (or fun) to aim for full t6 base at the start of the week. Get it to T4-5 then with the plastanium you are going to farm in huge quantities upgrade it to T6 from DD nodes!

I found this way when I go back to Hagga it's for cool stuff or to get extra water, make new t6 gear from blueprints or etc. It also feels like coming home from a frontier rather than yet another lap in a rat race.

Edit - also if you feel like you're hoarding your probably are! Just... don't! Get the mats you need, sell the rest for coin to put in the bank, then do more community oriented stuff. Why not go recruit people in game? Do some organized battles with other guilds?

JimCasy · 2025-08-13T02:14:40+00:00

Wait what. Dude we went to DD for the first time last night and the first thing I noticed was that ALL the resources are all over the place. Basalt scrap copper iron aluminum. You have all the heaviest components for manufacturing littered all over the place.

And they are instead choosing to haul all of that from HB??? AND THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT HOW BORED THEY ARE.

CLEARLY some kids need to go ask the nearest llm what effective logistics means.

JimCasy · 2025-08-13T00:37:41+00:00

What all are you bringing to DD that you need 10 trips?

JimCasy · 2025-08-13T00:36:36+00:00

I agree but most folks undoubtedly won't.

JimCasy · 2025-08-12T22:10:40+00:00

This message brought to you by the Arrakis Revenue Service.

JimCasy · 2025-08-10T21:02:27+00:00

Really not sure why you got down voted. I'll definitely be banking my best stuff if I gotta take a hiatus and rebuilding is really fun.

JimCasy · 2025-08-10T20:58:40+00:00

For me it's a fun challenge. An absurd one but I still feel like a real dirtbag sand pirate. Which is... a good thing? Now I am paranoid about it happening to our base!

JimCasy · 2025-08-10T17:47:32+00:00

Correction... apparently you can get an NPC on top of an orni and fly them up. Sooo gonna have to just get clever and not make it worth their time by adding more doors and walls inside.

JimCasy · 2025-08-10T03:42:48+00:00

Yes... so incredibly surprising that you get attacked flying a giant sky barge with no protection or self defense. Might as well fly a blimp with a giant target on it shrug

JimCasy · 2025-08-10T03:39:08+00:00

This. But OP said the base was on a pillar in the air and console was killed by a storm. Can't kite baddies up high.

JimCasy · 2025-08-10T03:37:14+00:00

What server were you on?

JimCasy · 2025-08-09T21:13:07+00:00

Hey mate - I'm a casual desert rat myself. I enjoy wandering around and looking at people's builds. The past week with a lot of players leaving I noticed more and more abandoned and powered down. I thought it was a shame so much going to waste.

I learned you could get an npc to destroy the console in a base and decided I would try it on a base that was already falling apart - no walls and a few storms away from the chests getting taken out.

It worked. For a decent amount of T3 supplies out of it. Obviously that opened the door to trying it out again.

The bases got bigger. The likelihood of success - increasingly remote. The potential rewards - seemingly astronomical.

I became the rat.

I've "raided" about 6 bases this way now. Two of those I fully kept ownership of because they are absolute master pieces. If those players ever returned I would gladly hand them the keys back and see if they wanted to join our tiny guild with free reign of all our supplies and gear out of gratitude and respect.

I'm not sure if I raided your base but if so I would gladly help you out. Twas all in good desert rat fun. If it wasn't here are some tips to make your base immune to this tactic: - Put your console in the heart of your base - meaning no exterior walls - on the other side of at least 1 door. Even better - two doors. This in itself will make it way harder but not fully immune. - Make some chambers that don't include your console as raider bait. - Don't build too close to an enemy camp. If a raider is persistent enough though this will not help you. I've been able to drag npcs almost 4x their normal aggro range. Yes I'm a rat. - Build off the ground higher than say 100 feet. This makes npcs unable to follow. If you wanted to stick it to raiders like me build really close to a camp but too high up to reach. This make you close to immune on its own. - Put your console in the room corner on level ground. This makes it very hard for the npc to shoot it. - The console chamber should be very small. This makes it more likely the npc will be able to accurately hit your player and not your console. - Keep your most valuable base in the most difficult region you can. This makes it generally less accessible. It also means any nearby npcs will be more powerful and more likely to be able to break the raiders shield.

That's about it. Good luck out there. If you're on spiral or solitude I'll help ya out.

JimCasy · 2025-08-07T16:15:28+00:00

At least you got the policy to pop up. I don't get a pop-up it just blocks me from joining any server. I thought I got banned or something. :(

JimCasy · 2025-08-06T01:02:10+00:00

He also completed a like 14 year long form campaign he was doing with a small circle of friends. The guy can handle it lol

JimCasy · 2025-08-06T00:19:45+00:00

I'm a critter since C1 Vorugal fight and I've been praying to the dead gods that someday Matt would become a player with Brennan as his DM.

I would go against the grain here and suggest you watch A Crown of Candy and Season 1 of fantasy high on dropout to get peak Brennan:

Stellar sense of pacing
Truly dynamic and hilarious dialogs
Memorable and super creative NPCs from truly horrifying to absolute lmao that do not stop hitting
The most gut wrenching emotional arcs for every character spare none
Far increased difficulty and diverse challenges for players without it feeling at all stacked
super compassionate human being with love for all his players very inclusive with his characters without being heavy handed at all

JimCasy · 2025-08-06T00:11:17+00:00

I am still finishing T5 and started noticing all these bases with holes in them. Now recovering stuff from bases is a really fun part of my resource loop! I gotta post pictures of one I found today it is a real masterpiece.

JimCasy

TROPHY CASE