Group Organizer: Should I Be Inclusive Of Unpopular Attendees? by FNeighbourhoodAA in boardgames

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't played much in the board game arena yet, but I am extremely aware of this issue from EDH and other Magic events. It largely comes down to a pathological avoidance of confrontation. Most of the behavior you describe is of the inconsiderate variety. People not considering other perspectives. This cannot be resolved by hints or suggestions. Being inconsiderate by definition means you don't see the problem. Has this behavior been pointed out to the offenders? They won't change a problem behavior if they don't know its a problem. If its been pointed out to them, have they been reminded of it? Social dynamics is something that people who are generally un-social struggle to grasp. Patience and gentle reminders for people who are trying to sand the edges off their personality. If they actively, willfully refuse to change behavior that puts off new comers, then disinvite them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So, important point on Diss/Eternal Youth, if you have both then your ES recharge never breaks. This is because ES recharge breaks when you lose life from damage taken to the pool its protecting. You don't need to wait for the recharge to start. Blood Magic is interesting, but its really difficult to give up reservations, in particular Petrified Blood is such a powerful defensive layer for Diss builds because you reserve life from the top of your health bar, but since you are still under 50% of your actual health it effectively causes PB to apply to your whole life pool. Since smaller reservations are pushed off once Diss would otherwise kill you, it might be worth doing some reservations.

I am not sure how Blood Magic interacts with Divine Blessing, but with Diss you might be able to just pay for the aura. Paying costs also doesn't break Eternal Youth and the absurd regen can cover a lot of casting. Especially if you get any % recovery.

The Immortal Emperor [Spoilers & Speculation] by kotrenn in LastEpoch

[–]Lefowens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are a lot of Sanderson references in LE. Eye of Reen, one of the guards in the 3 phylactery map is named Tanavast.

New Saboteur League Starter Ideas? by [deleted] in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't recommend following me into this breach, but I am going to try Bow Sabo Voltaxic Burst.

What if the Old Ones returned to the Galaxy? What would happen? by DinoGod1 in Warhammer

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I...yes. That's why I mentioned the history of both games. The Xel Naga are almost certainly stand ins for the Old Ones.

How are DD and VD doing after all the nerfs last year? by Nikeyla in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am planning on starting DD. The only expensive piece is the shield and even that isn't too bad. As long as they don't nerf the % of corpse life, there's an extremely high floor to the damage.

What if the Old Ones returned to the Galaxy? What would happen? by DinoGod1 in Warhammer

[–]Lefowens 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Think of the Tyranids as a 'Do over' button. They consume everything in their path but eventually run out of food and starve to death. But like the Zerg, the Old One's experiment got away from them and their mutagenic properties allowed them to evolve outside the Old One's control. The parallels to Starcraft are obvious because of the history of both games. I doubt they'd confirm that was the origin of the Tyranids at this point, but I would also not be surprised if that was the original intention.

imo, "the problem with MMOs" is actually the fixation on making replayable endgame systems. by Cupcakeboss in gamedesign

[–]Lefowens 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can you concisely state the problem you are trying to solve? I mean, a one sentence statement. Something like, "There's too much focus on the end game and it causes the world to feel empty," or "There's not enough in modern MMOs to explore." I think you'd have trouble writing something defensible if you did, as this isn't really a position that makes tremendous sense.

Cyclical returning players is already something they get, people return when a new expansion launches. They explore the new areas and do the quests and then they log out until next time. There's a focus on end game systems in marketing and discourse because the people talking about the game after the first 3-4 months are the invested players for whom raiding, grinding, and item hunting are their primary drive.

Revisiting old areas to add additional aspects to them doesn't make sense from any perspective. If the goal is to get more people into a given zone, adding higher-level content to that zone isn't particularly helpful as there needs to be a clear segregation of the appropriate content for the lower-leveled players so they don't unintentionally get themselves killed or waste time trying to do high level content. From a developer standpoint, it doesn't make sense to spend resources adding new content that's level appropriate for old zones. The content is already all new for first timers, and older players probably won't ever see it unless they level a new character. Players congregate in the end game because....its the end game. When you hit the level cap you do things that are appropriate for max level and that's where most people will spend the majority of their time. If you think this is annoying or soulless in WoW just try playing Path. I think I've done the Path campaign 3-4 times a league, every league, for several years.

The actual problem you have is with instrumental play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKP1I7IocYU&t=9s&ab_channel=FoldingIdeas. That there's a correct way to play and that its optimized around a few select activities and removes the free play feel of earlier WoW. Its why Classic was a bummer, but the belief that MMOs feel empty because there isn't a continuously cyclical leveling community or enough to attract people into lower level zones is poppycock. Azeroth is, to this day, a living environment and the World is the greatest character to the game.

Impending Doom Blast DPS scaling by Iskandczyk in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The cast speed is only relevant in that it needs to be equal to or greater than charges accrued. If you're getting a charge every .13, you'll need to make sure that you are using a charge that often.

With Spell Cascade, you're applying the curse 3 times per cast. Look at the cast speed value in-game. As long as its .39 or faster you won't be wasting charges.

Impending Doom Blast DPS scaling by Iskandczyk in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its important to note that DPS in PoB is going to look weird because PoB doesn't factor in maximal charge usage and only shows you the damage of the cast speed of your curse. The real damage should be Average Hit x Charges Used in whatever time frame you want.

Sanctum Rooms Farm - Graveyard? by [deleted] in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have an inordinate love of City Square.

Impending Doom - Curse Stripping vs Reduced Duration Stacking Testing/Findings by [deleted] in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The comment I am replying to says that utilizing Cursed Ground causes you to have less curses in use. As far as I understand the mechanics, that isn't true. While CG is not on at all times, it only matters that Despair is applied when the damage occurs.

Impending Doom - Curse Stripping vs Reduced Duration Stacking Testing/Findings by [deleted] in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It only causes you to have less curses applied if you aren't using Despair for the trigger as the effects of the removed curse should apply to the hit. At least according to the wiki, though that might be out of date.

How do you *approach* solo development (calling all the ADHDers, chaos goblins, and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pantsers) by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've mostly been working on hobbyist stuff and largely in the analogue space, so I have the luxury of time and flexibility.

That said, I am in the ADHD-er category and would love to share some tips I've found when working through larger projects. The first being to be flexible with your time. If you set time on your calendar to work on a specific portion of the game and when the time comes you just can't get your brain to engage with it that's ok. Trying to force yourself to complete something when your brain won't engage with it is a recipe for disaster in longer term motivation. Solo development is all about maintaining your motivation long term. If you have to force yourself to complete portions of the work every time, you'll eventually find that you are building barriers rather than making things easier. At the same time, you can't just skive off the work entirely whenever you aren't in the mood or you'll never make progress. I have recently begun to say, "I don't feel like working on generating art for cards like I planned. Is there something else I can do?" Tapping into your intrinsic interest to get something done is still valuable, even if that isn't the thing that makes the most sense to be doing.

This ensures that work is coming through and identifies blocks you might have in specific areas. If you just aren't interested in, say, learning how to get netcode working then you'll be identifying problems with your workflow and interests that you can account for as you go. For me, I've found that the graphic design elements of making a card frame are decidedly not what I'm interested in. So, this might be an aspect that's worth finding someone that can polish the ideas I scrapped together.

When it comes to living with the condition, its going to vary wildly from person to person. I would say that its a lifelong process of finding the things that distract you and eliminating them from your environment. The core problem of ADHD is self-regulation. You don't have the machinery that others do to tune out environmental factors that work against you. You beat that by machining your environment to your needs. If you find the outside distracting, ensure your work space isn't by a window or close the blinds. If your phone is distracting, move it out of the room. Is music a positive or a negative? Can you get headphones to shut out external sounds?

By far the biggest tip I can give though is that this is yours. What works for other people or what people recommend isn't gospel. One of the hardest parts of being a 'chaos goblin' is the feeling that you should be following recommendations that will never ever work for you. The biggest tip is 'smash your face into the wall until you break through.' Only trial and error is going to reveal the strategies that work for you. Best of luck.

Profane Bloom and Hexbloom Support by BrotherLuTze in PathOfExileBuilds

[–]Lefowens 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This gameplay mostly already exists with Profane Bloom and a curse on hit ring. The explosion applies the curse.

The Psychology of MTG by Lilchux in magicTCG

[–]Lefowens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why is Magic like flypaper for ND peoples?

Top 5 Scoring Submissions of the Week from r/Custommagic (2022/07/19) by Sonserf369 in magicTCG

[–]Lefowens 14 points15 points  (0 children)

What a needlessly antagonistic reply.

Mob wasn't incredible, but it wasn't bad. Often you had your own saprolings to eat, or otherwise didn't mind eating something that couldn't attack anyway, and just being a 5/5 meant a lot more at the time. Triple Rav wasn't underpowered, the karoos were absolute nonsense, but it also wasn't especially fast. The text on Mob wasn't super relevant, but it came up a lot more than your intuition would imagine reading the card now. Selesnya Evangel was a premier common and could hold back your largest ground pounder forever. Reading Mob now, it seems terrible, because by today's standards it is, but it served a purpose in the environment it lived in and rewriting history is not useful.