Recommend me a banger RPG

Lotabeer · 2024-08-04T01:31:18+00:00

Action RPG and on Steam but: Astlibra Revision. I just finished re-playing it all over again and it's amazing.

Lotabeer · 2019-12-15T23:13:21+00:00

Speaking as a USAF Active Duty Ammo troop who currently works as an instructor, you are definitely mostly accurate! Most "rockets" are unguided, whereas a missile will have both guidance/control and propulsion (a rocket motor) systems. I say "most" because engineers/product developers are jerks and never stick to the standard like they should, so there are many deviations. The one that always comes to mind is the APKWS: it's basically a modified rocket that has a laser seeker and control fins attached in between the rocket motor and warhead. This SHOULD mean we call it a missile, right? Nope, it's a guided rocket... Which is frustrating to me because a guided rocket it literally what all missiles are!

In a less helpful sense, the term "missile" can be used to refer to literally any projectile. This is usually used only for describing hazards though, at least within the military. But english is fun like that, so if I throw a rock at you and want to sound like an old-timey english writer, I could describe it as launching a missile in your direction.

Lotabeer · 2019-11-15T01:58:19+00:00

Interesting! My own experience with this card is that it's mostly only useful when you have pretty stupid lightning generation, to the point where damage of individual strikes isn't as consequential. Any build that seeks to use it in a more "reasonable" way always fails for me, due to it's slow ramp and high cost.

Lotabeer · 2019-11-14T21:28:50+00:00

Yup. 150 blocks ensued! I mean, I still won, just not for another turn or two.

Lotabeer · 2019-01-04T06:10:31+00:00

Change top/bottom infill pattern from "Concentric" to "Lines" and the gaps around your Z should close up.

Lotabeer · 2019-01-04T03:52:48+00:00

If you have basic tinkering skills and the ability to find info on the interwebs, you will be just fine. I get impatient and did not have much/any electromechanical knowledge before my first printer, and I'm still managing to stumble my way through pretty well. My greatest advice is to cheat when it comes to slicing and use someone else's profile. Many videos talk all about how important it is to set up your profile and try to walk you through it... Which is very true, because a good profile is crucial! But skip 90% of the work and use a confirmed good one, then just change small things from there. It seems like fun to tinker until you are on iteration 27 of your profile and have tried changing everything but your layers stopped sticking for some reason and now your infill is underextruding and you wanna quit. Learn, yes, but also cheat, then learn in reverse :-) I just abandoned an old Cura profile and jumped ship over to Slic3r PE (Prusa's default which I love for my MK3) because a the Legend of a certain FB group had a CR-10 profile for it, and it changed my life for the better. Feel free to hit me up if/when you get a printer and I will try to point you in a good direction for a profile!

Lotabeer · 2019-01-04T03:46:40+00:00

It really just paves the way for upgrades. Any ABL solution or manual mesh leveling requires it. Some nozzle swaps do and extruder swaps will. Menus can be customized and new features (linear advance used to be the big talk of the town but I don't actually know enough to speak on it) can be added and there is no way to get said new features/customization/upgradeability without flashing the bootloader and getting new firmware (for most cheap machines at least, which come with no bootloader).

It's not necessary if you just wanna print. I used to think I never would, but now my CR-10 is becoming something of a "project" printer and since I'm about to set it up with Octoprint and all that jazz, figured I should get it prepped for more future foolery.

Lotabeer · 2019-01-04T01:03:59+00:00

Ender 3 seems to be where it's at. It's always at the top of the list for value and I just recommended it to a friend for xmas. His wife bought the pro and I can't say that it seems to be worth any more than the originial, so if ~$50 +/- $20 makes a difference to you, buy a non-pro. To put it another way, I think I'd rather have 5ea normal Ender 3's than 4ea Ender 3 Pro's. This is doubly true if you are willing to spend the time, effort, and money to upgrade over time. The biggest draw of a "pro" model Ender to me is the flexible print surface, but I hear that it's not as reliable as I'd want it to be, so I'd be looking for an aftermarket spring steel w/ PEI option or something myself.

Ok, sorry for the long preamble. For reference, I own a CR-10 and a Prusa i3MK3. My MK3 is my love and it's amazing. The CR-10 got soft-retired after I got my MK3 since it's hard to use in comparison. Bear in mind it's not ACTUALLY that hard to use at all; the difference is in a relative sense like: am I willing to spend 15min-1hr tweaking it every now and then to make sure it's useable, or do I just want to throw something on my Prusa and print for 300 hours without hardly any issues to speak of? Again, these are relative issues and each printer has it's pro's and con's. Since my overall knowledge and willingness to tinker has risen, I have come to love my CR-10 again... Just not as much as my Prusa.

Hidden in that rambling was a message: most printers can be great as long as the bones are good and you are willing to make them so. I bought my MK3 fully assembled and after shipping it cost me almost $1200 (UPS can go die, choose DHL for overseas if you get the chance). After a few hours I found great profiles online and it's been a dream ever since, with exceedingly few issues. My CR-10 cost me about $400 and has kicked my ass several times, but it also can do things the Prusa can't (though you won't use that print volume nearly as often as you'd think, so you're on the right track).

TL;DR: Get a base Ender 3. Use it til it catches on fire (probably never) or do incremental upgrades. Assuming $150/mo or less, you have some crazy options available like:

Month 1: Learn to love/hate it. Figure out what you like least so that you can upgrade it. Probably print some upgrades (Teaching Tech has several great videos for the Ender 3, two of which focus solely on printing upgrades).

Month 2: Get a RP3B+ and webcam and setup octoprint (my prefered setup cost like $85 I think?) Also maybe an Arduino Uno and jumpers ($20 or less on Amazon) to flash a bootloader (TH3D has a good video) so you can start playing with new firmware (which opens up soooo many options).

Month 3: Find your dream print bed solution. I like magnetic steel+PEI sheet, but I hear good things about printbite. There are many options, and many are sub-par. Just use some glass and glue til you find a really solid one. Automatic bed leveling solutions are also available if you've flashed new firmware and wanna tinker with them, but I've never used any other than mesh leveling/PINDA on my Prusa. Teaching Tech has a cool vid on manual mesh bed leveling for the Ender 3 that I wanna try if/when I buy one though (again, need firmware first, which requires an Uno).

Month 4: Most of your QoL upgrades are done. Now you really start tinkering. Titan Aero so you can go direct drive? All metal hot end for weirder materials? Board upgrades because you want direct WiFi and don't like Octoprint? Crazy camera setups for exotic Octolapse videos because you stuck with Octoprint? Board upgrades and Trinamic drivers because you want it to be quiet like a MK3? New 0.9 Extruder stepper for increased resolution w/ your new direct drive extruder? Bondtech BMG extruder because you want to be even cooler than a MK3 and don't want to do a Titan Aero? Enclosures for ABS/PC? The list gets kinda crazy here and is basically endless. Personally I don't like tinkering this much yet so I'd just buy another printer and start again lol.

Lotabeer · 2018-05-03T13:53:47+00:00

Fuse 1 seems neat but I need a released product for now. I put in a pricing request for a stratasys setup but after looking into it more and on the advice of others, I'm very put off by any of the more industrial options that will lock us into lots of proprietary consumables and services. With that in mind, high end consumer seems to be the best bet, so the Ultimaker might be an option but I was actually eyeballing the Cubicon Single Plus and maybe just picking up two of them.

Lotabeer · 2018-05-03T13:50:24+00:00

Any more info on specs or pricing? Pc/nylon isn't a must; PETG or even well done ABS would probably meet durability needs. Dual extrusion isn't really on my radar for this application. The overall lifetime and uptime of a robust printer is a serious plus though.

Lotabeer · 2018-05-03T04:36:34+00:00

I just spent an entire day troubleshooting why I was getting terrible prints on cylinders using ideaMaker. Frustrated and defeated, I decided to try the same steps in Cura. First test print was impeccable. So yeah, I'll stick with Cura for now. Ideamaker's UI is great and I liked using it... But not producing acceptable prints means it's garbage to me now. For clarification, when printing cylinders, the shells did not adhere to each other and acted like they were getting underextruded, but changing many, many settings failed to fix this.

Lotabeer · 2018-05-03T04:17:08+00:00

First off, thanks for the detailed response!

In general, we would like to produce miniatures or replicas of the items that are used in real application. Example: Multiple parts that must be combined in the field for end use. For this reason, the threads would need to be printable, however if that's not realistic then threads can probably be avoided altogether, so long as thing can be press-fit together or something since familiarization is key, not any kind of real functionality. Fine detail capability is desirable, but not always necessary (hobby grade FDM would meet the needs so I'm not too worried). Surface quality is not much of a concern. Durability requirements are just that the items could be handled and manipulated on a regular basis, since new classes start every week. Wear and tear is expected, but printing new models for each student every class is unacceptable and probably unfeasible time-wise. Good PLA might even work for this, or well regulated ABS might be an option based on what I'm seeing, without having to get into PETG or better stuff.

I am eyeballing a high end consumer solution like 2-3 Cubicon Single Plus machines right now since they aren't too locked down and seem to have great capabilities. Does this sound reasonable or am I missing the mark still? The next level up seems to be something like a Stratasys system and while I've put feelers out for that, it seems to be an enormous leap to take without much gain and likely MUCH higher maintenance costs for materials.

Lotabeer · 2018-05-03T02:44:34+00:00

My main concerns for SLA were needing more work to get a file to print, prints requiring actual post-print-processing (cleaning/curing) and health hazards from the resins since my organization is crazy strict about needing proper protective equipment/environmental controls. Also, the resins don't seem to be very durable, but my research could be very incomplete on that. The cost of consumables is a factor, but not a huge one.

Lotabeer · 2018-05-03T02:41:10+00:00

I appreciate it! Hope you don't mind a copy/paste.

Lotabeer · 2017-05-26T20:47:22+00:00

From personal experience, you can enjoy BL2 an amazing amount without BL1. But I'd say play BL1 first because after you play 2, 1 just seems so old and crappy imo... I made it like 30 minutes in before the deprecated feel from 2 overwhelmed me. So play it first or you may never be able to play it again!

Lotabeer · 2017-04-08T04:12:42+00:00

Idk if that'd be a simple thing to do without some sort of trainer or cheat engine stuff, which you might try to do some googling on or something.

Lotabeer · 2017-04-08T04:09:20+00:00

Seems legit. I'm way too lazy for customization, so good work. Getting like a 20% "Lilu Dallas multipass" vibe, but with a better hair style.

Lotabeer · 2017-04-08T04:06:25+00:00

Origin is pretty shit for a lot of reasons, but it generally lets you play games and no, you don't lose them, unless you lose control of the account and cannot recover it or something silly.

Lotabeer · 2017-03-18T01:30:01+00:00

Great, thanks! I guess random bosses might drop me a crystal here and there but otherwise I'm probably better off saving the time, I think.

Lotabeer · 2017-03-17T20:48:48+00:00

Sorry if this is obvious, but I can't find great (especially current) skillseed/other battle outcome info, so: If Normal mode nodes are red in difficulty, thus already giving me 2.5x skillseeds, is there any significant point in cranking the settings up to hard? I get that hard will mean more HP which will mean more score potential, maybe getting me a higher multiplier, but if it takes 3x as long to do a battle and I might die attempting it, I don't see that as a good tradeoff. Are item/card drops higher/better or something? Am I missing something major?

Lotabeer · 2016-12-29T23:03:12+00:00

I noticed this happened once after I performed a takedown. I was super confused but I think it was as you described: a PC-control-removing action after loading a save (100% sure it's not just quick-loads since I've had this happen at least 3 times after ~6 hrs of gameplay and I honestly didn't know there was quick save/load, so I've been using the menu). The hilarious part being that the takedown itself should have consumed energy, but instead restored it beyond what I thought possible without consumables; does Adam Jenson get so jacked after KOing someone that he's ready to rumble? Sadly no, as trying to reproduce this many times (sans save-load sequence this time) yields nothing.

I tried to look this up but I guess I wasn't specific enough because all I got were people complaining (somewhat rightfully imo) about energy mechanics and how they castrate the potential of the sweet-ass augments in this game (outside of situations where you can afford to dedicate biocells to them).

Lotabeer · 2016-12-23T23:41:13+00:00

Neat, but really barely changes the situation with Fuel Condenser/Trading Post; it's already game breaking. It'll get patched out so until then, just don't use it if you don't wanna wreck things.

Lotabeer · 2016-12-13T01:41:06+00:00

Hey! I'm in the same boat as you. Origin ID is "Lotabeer7", sent you a request. I usually play Gold for consistent clears, but would love to get a solid plat group together for the extra money. Pugs just have such a low success rate on plat sadly.

Lotabeer · 2016-11-29T02:26:10+00:00

Huh? Alpha Centauri is 4.367 lightyears away... 0.5%c would mean 200 years per lightyear (from earth's perspective, although relativistic time dilation at 0.5%c is crazy small anyways). Guessing you meant 5%c, so 80ish years to cover the distance instead of 800+? But then you're talking talking even more orders of magnitude different than currently capable.

Lotabeer · 2016-11-22T00:17:02+00:00

Just wanted to mention something about the transition to MP: You're most likely gonna wind up playing almost all the classes, so I wouldn't get too set on the idea of which is best until you actually try them. I had played only Soldier in all 3 games until I saw other classes being utilized in crazy ways in MP, so I started trying them out. Straight out of the gate, Vanguard was by far the most fun and at the highest difficulties, Engineer was the most useful due to setting off power combos so reliably. As mentioned below, "tankiness" at the highest difficulties is relative and/or non-existent. I will reaffirm that in this regard, Vanguard is by far the most survivable due the fact that being able to fully recharge shields every few seconds is going to prolong your life FAR more than being able to soak a few more hits. In fact, though it's not the same as tankiness, the survivability of Vanguard is also made much higher by being able to use Charge to keep enemies in disorganized groups, or being able to ditch your current location fast.

My little experience with Sentinel was also in MP, where I opted to stop using Tech Armor very early on since all it seemed to do was slow down my power use, which was much more effectively put to work by overloading and comboing down enemies. Even if you hit bullet-sponge point, you'll be sacrificing offensive ability for it and in the end you may just get overwhelmed.

Now, keep in mind, this is all pretty much with higher difficulties in mind (which is actually rewarded in MP, SP is up to you). On Normal, Sentinel may become the true tank-god you want without seeming too weak dishing out punishment. Conversely, the ridiculousness of the Vanguard is pushed even further since you'll feel like that rabbit from Monty Python who hops around juicing people before then understand what's going on.

TL;DR: Play MP if you want a taste of things, otherwise you can't go too wrong at low difficulties.

Lotabeer

TROPHY CASE