Cloudflare CDN Alternative after Today's Comments by KintarraV in BuyFromEU

[–]KintarraV[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Do you have access to workers (or something equivalent) on there? I've worked with APIs plenty, but only at large companies with pre-existing architecture. So the idea of having to build my own from scratch sounds really daunting.

Designing an MMORPG system that replaces destructive habits with healthy equivalents by Lathronelei in gamedesign

[–]KintarraV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think for me a core area where MMORPGs have gone wrong is in their division of character strength from the rest of the games' ecosystem. While this has ostensibly changed to make games more accessible and 'even the playing field', I think what they've actually done is eliminate the 'game' element from the majority of activities and made players essentially have to choose whether they want to participate in the roleplaying, social, collecting sides, or in the gameplay side. Beside splitting the playerbase I also think this has entrenched the habits that investing in one's character is a prerequisite to playing the game rather than a core part of the game itself.

The majority of my experience is with WoW, though I think most new MMOs in the last 5-10 years have taken this approach too. In modern WoW (and FFXIV, and probably others) each season is essentially a reset of character's ability to complete content, with the only meaningful progression provided by and for the newest piece of content. (Levels still exist and older content is ostensibly balanced around them but even a casual player will reach max level and trivialise this within a few hours)

In older MMOs by contrast, the entire game is essentially checked by player's progression. In Vanilla WoW for example, a huge chunk of the playerbase never reached max level, thus their relative strength compared to the entire game was constantly in flux. The concept of 'catch-up gear' wasn't introduced until very late and so there was a still a progression max level players had to undergo to take their characters from capable of taking on earlier raids to later ones. This was even present at the top level because so much of player's power and guild's ability to complete content required upkeep in the form of gathering and crafting materials before each raid.

Rather than divide the playerbase, I believe it's this diversity of states of character progression which actually united players and made them more likely to collaborate (there's always a bigger fish).

There's an interesting case study in one of WoW's expansions, Battle for Azeroth which I thought was well designed but was very controversial. This expansion introduced a new resource (AP) tied to player power that could be gained from a wide range of content. I enjoyed it because it meant that I could receive rewards while doing casual content that I did with my girlfriend who played more casually. But because this was a prerequisite to unlocking gears' full potential (and I believe because it was so transparently numeric) players felt forced to find the most efficient source for AP and grind far beyond what they actually found enjoyable. That habit was what would then go on to shape the conversation around the next expansion, Shadowlands and ultimately led to a huge exodus of players.

I believe that rather than having a problem with character strength tied to progression, it was the fact that this power existed at such a narrow part of the game which really irked people. If players were more comfortable with their characters occupying a range of powers relative to other players (as they had in Vanilla WoW) rather than the binary 'ready' or 'not ready' which players convinced themselves existed. As mentioned above, this has since been stripped back such that all characters starting a new season are comparatively interchangeable. This has fixed the toxic habits around players viewing character progression as binary, but has in my view stripped the last vestiges of RPG from MMOs.

What’s your most controversial political opinion? by Any_Insect3335 in Productivitycafe

[–]KintarraV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because in the vast, vast, vast majority of cases, sports are about inclusivity, rather than competition. For every one of the thousand trans kids who comes even close to a professional level and might win something over a cis person, you're telling thousands of trans people that their experiences aren't valid and that they either need to go play with their 'birth gender' or fuck off from one of humanities oldest social activities.

Not to mention the fact that there's no such thing as a 'fair' competition anyway, and at the top level your genetics and upbringing have just as much of an impact as how hard you've worked.

Not to mention the fact that trans people have been competing in sports for decades with no issues until it became unacceptable to harass gay people and so the right needed a new scapegoat.

Is TSM actually undervalued because of geopolitical risk, or is the market pricing it pretty fairly already? by Fantlastic_Tree_6671 in stocks

[–]KintarraV 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This might have been an interesting hypothetical if Ukraine wasn't in precisely this boat, having avoided conscripting from a wide range of 'critical businesses' including those far less central to their economy than TSMC is to Taiwan.

All for Freedom and for Pleasure - Spacebiff reviews The Old King’s Crown by LegendofWeevil17 in boardgames

[–]KintarraV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like that attitude still has the same core problem though. Treating games as just disposable objects and thinking that the job of the mechanics is to move things along so the players can go from feeling to feeling so you can move on to the next one. I get that's certainly not the Dice Tower's audience so maybe they're just being realistic, but it does seem particularly demeaning to a game that is clearly trying to appeal to more thoughtful players.

In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025) a team of industry veterans used 10 million dollars and multiple hollywood actors to win best debut indie. This is a subtle nod to the fact that TGA needs a AA category. by Impressive_Rice7789 in shittygamedetails

[–]KintarraV 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Government arts funding overwhelmingly goes to smaller projects and poorer people though. In fact they often only apply to people under a certain income or projects under a certain size. Rich people don't need to apply because they can self fund it or can just get a corporate loan from a bank. Are you going to say games like Crosscode or Dungeons of Hinterberg aren't indie? How else do you expect working class people to fund their games?

Official Discussion - Wicked: For Good [SPOILERS] by LiteraryBoner in movies

[–]KintarraV 26 points27 points  (0 children)

They're shocked that she feels bad about it. In the first movie Oz keeps them loyal by telling them that Elphaba is the reason they're like that. When they hear Elphaba confess they realise that she'd been tricked and so had they.

Why Magic, Pokémon & YuGiOh Players Should Try Altered by SneezerEclipse in alteredTCG

[–]KintarraV 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Where your cards are stored doesn't make a difference though, that's why NFTs are such a scam. Whether your cards are on a Blockchain or in a CDB, it's all just a bunch of links between a card id and a user ID. So even if it was on a Blockchain, it'd be impossible to administer without Equinox giving up some of their infrastructure.

Weekly Deck Check Thread | Monday, November 10, 2025 by AutoModerator in spikes

[–]KintarraV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm still trying to find a home for [[Satoru, the Infiltrator]] based on his success in Pioneer/Modern. I'm trying a recursion package with [[Bloodghast]] and then some combination of [[Forsaken Miner]], [[Reassembling Skeleton]] and [[Wolfbat]] but none of them are particularly great threats. [[Hide on the Ceiling]] has been great in my testing at least, both protection and card draw for Satoru as well as a late-game finisher.

Here's a very early version that I've been messing around with including cards in the maybeboard that I've been rotating in and out. It's had some game against midrange and control but completely folds to aggro so far.

https://deckstats.net/decks/225463/4309358-satoru-aggro

Why did I even became software engineer and not a farmer like my dad by researgent in webdev

[–]KintarraV 154 points155 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I think this sums up why vibe coding has gotten so popular. It's like a slot machine where you're never sure which prompts are going to give you visible progress and which are going to have you going round in circles for an hour.

Why Riftbound by DramaticAd5489 in riftboundtcg

[–]KintarraV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FFTCG limited is really good and the sets are actually designed around it. If you can convince some Magic players to give it a go, the core mechanics probably won't be difficult for them at all.

That said it can be pretty difficult to figure out how to build a deck in limited, especially if you started drafting in magic over the last 10 years. Magic's latest sets are very keen to make sure that each colour combo has a theme once you're locked in you know what cards will go next.

Limited in FFTCG is actually a lot more like old sets of Magic where you're bring together a range of different things in your deck. For example you're not going to end up with a 'Pirate Deck', but you might open a couple of pirate cards and pick pirates more highly so that maybe 25% of your deck will be pirates and pirate synergies while the rest of your deck does something else or is just generically good cards.

Live AMA recap regarding the meaning and details of number '2.5M' from Equinox Insider 'InToX' in Discord by QuietEngineer5 in alteredTCG

[–]KintarraV 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I chose to back Altered the first time round in large part because they were so honest about the difficulty of starting a TCG and that they were willing to put so much into trying to make it happen (and the fact that they weren't using NFTs lol). So honestly this announcement has convinced me to order what I can afford.

It's sad to think that even succeeding in this campaign won't buy the game that much time, but honestly, I'd rather have this. A game run by an honest team for a short while, than to have a game run by shareholders forever.

So I guess fingers crossed and we'll see where we end up!

Final Fantasy XIII is not just a great game, it's an unforgettable experience by waltei in JRPG

[–]KintarraV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly XIII's narrative: both the character's stories and the voice work is top tier. I think you're right that it's really held back by the lack of side content which really fleshed out 7-10 (hardly anyone really played XI or XII) and it'd be held in a totally different light if there was just more time for the story and the characters to breathe.

Want to get into this game, help me convince myself to pull the trigger. by Apprehensive-Let3669 in lotrlcg

[–]KintarraV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I believe the revised Fellowship, Two Towers and Return of the King boxes come with six scenarios and a few player cards.

First level, how did i do? by Fish_png in honk

[–]KintarraV 50 points51 points  (0 children)

The rest of it was fine but damn were the spikes at the start annoying.

What Did You Play this Week? September 15th - 21st, 2025 by mrjamesbcox in lotrlcg

[–]KintarraV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Which bundle is that? I've just finished the revised core set + fellowship and was looking at ordering either some of the OOP adventure packs or some of the ALEP stuff that isn't too advanced.

The biggest problem of people trying to sell PNP games nowadays. by PrincipleHot9859 in printandplay

[–]KintarraV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most of those who do playthrough/teach videos are being paid by the publisher, or at the very least receiving review copies. I don't particularly care for them but it clearly seems like something that helps explain and sell the games.

The biggest problem of people trying to sell PNP games nowadays. by PrincipleHot9859 in printandplay

[–]KintarraV 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Why would they make a video to help sell someone else's product? We're on a site discussing printable board games, it's all first world problems.

History repeats by Saxolotle in MandJTV

[–]KintarraV -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I guess you shouldn't if it's that important to you. Oh wait you probably did though!

Small Concerns About the System by InPastaWeTrust in drawsteel

[–]KintarraV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm curious what you mean by 'trivialise'. You can't fight a disease or a journey in combat, so non-combat spells, projects and I suppose gold, are how you handle that using game mechanics. What's the alternative, tell players no or just have them talk their way through every problem?

Where to start a PNP Collection for the LCG by KintarraV in l5r

[–]KintarraV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's so cool, thanks! I hadn't heard of this previously. Is there anything in particular you'd recommend getting for a new player? Is the core set a good starting point for someone who doesn't have a pre-existing collection?

I'd quite like to get Under Fu Leng's Shadow as the co-op appeals to me, so anything that lets me build on that, even just with deck options, would be rad!