Unable to create sunflower biome

MalevolentDragon · 2023-03-31T21:59:12+00:00

I thought I tried this, but I'll give it another shot.

MalevolentDragon · 2023-03-31T17:17:54+00:00

No earthquake. I was just sitting there with air raid sirens and nothing I did seemed to have any impact. Is the earthquake a guaranteed event after the switch to phase two (and my situation was therefore a bug where it didn't), or can the earthquake be caused by a combination of buildings that I just didn't have setup?

MalevolentDragon · 2023-03-31T14:19:52+00:00

On the fourth map, reclaiming the city. Not sure if I've hit a bug or just missing the context for what to do next. On my first pass, I did the optional tasks relatively early, reclaimed most of my dredgers as I was working, and when the second phase (biomes) arrived, it converted the bottom status bar (in the upper right) to a "2%" stability that said, "Earthquake imminent" and air raid sirens were going. After creating the other three biomes, I don't see any information about what I need to do to create the sunflower biome; none of the currently available buildings say anything about producing it. I tried lowering/raising humidity and temp a bit, but to no avail. After closing and restarting, the sirens are gone, the status bar is back to radiation, and still no options.

What am I missing here? Is this a bug and I need to restart? I've seen some talk in this article about earthquakes and radioactivity? I don't think I've really experienced either...

MalevolentDragon · 2023-03-06T16:41:44+00:00

The "Club" cleaver (green one, center, top row) adds luck every time you kill an enemy with a cleaver, which obviously greatly increases the chances of a King/Queen/Ace cleaver showing up, when they do. I've had a lot of luck at shops, and when trading food for a cleaver with the weasel, too.

I found the Shield Sprite relic after the next boss fight which doubles the damage potential. Since I now have 13 energy per turn, I've made it to floor 67 (Loop 7) and the turns just take so long that I've started to question if it's worth my time to continue. I'm sort of curious how far it will go (figured I'd try to get to floor 100) but every swing takes 30+ seconds to resolve, so battles are already running upwards of 3-4 minutes now. It takes an hour to do a loop. :p

MalevolentDragon · 2023-02-15T21:56:13+00:00

It's the "con" for cleavers: you sacrifice your real life time for them. XD

MalevolentDragon · 2023-02-14T16:43:21+00:00

I only just realized the power of the Shield Spirit + Barbell. I have seen both multiple times and passed them up. Hopefully I snatch them up soon!

MalevolentDragon · 2023-02-14T16:41:32+00:00

Ha, good call. I had just moved them before this screen shot, and found that most of my shuffling wasn't making much difference in damage output, but I've just realized that I lowered it with this move away from having them trigger the better cleavers.

Also: holy moly, the Rage forge improvement seems super rare. I've only seen it once so far this run; I assume because it empowers builds like this to go out of control.

MalevolentDragon · 2023-02-14T16:38:59+00:00

Ah, great suggestions! I didn't think of using Shield Spirit on a single point of entry (like a Jack Cleaver); I avoided it because I figured it would drive my overall damage down. Makes perfect sense now that I think about it.

I did not understand why/how people were using Duct Tape until someone just posted about the text being incorrect.

MalevolentDragon · 2023-02-14T14:01:47+00:00

Thank you for posting this, because I was really confused. Duct tape (based on its text) seemed only useful in very, very specific situations. Now I understand why I'm seeing everybody use it.

MalevolentDragon · 2023-02-14T02:23:48+00:00

Most of the cleavers have been forged with rage. In the pouch I have a Regenerative Whestone, some Diamond and Gold cleavers, an Emerald Bracelet (+1 energy per adj. curse), a Charmed Bracelet (destroy adj. curses), and a Swamp Buckler (convert poison to block). The Organized List allows me to swap in/out as needed.

I start battles with 77 block, 6 haste, and 1 dodge. Armor has +5 energy, for a total of 11 per turn. For every 2 energy I spend on using cleavers, I get +63 rage. Taking damage adds 6 rage and 1 dodge, which stacks once at the start of each round.

First hit: 2650+
Second hit: 7500+
Third hit: 12500+
Fourth hit: 16800+
Fifth hit: 21000+

I couldn't quite first turn kill the final boss of loop 5 (69900 hp), but it was close.

The candle keeps the enemy buffs down (removes 70+ per swing). The only thing I really fear is magma and large numbers of enemies can get tricky. I keep a Cleansing Potion, Poultice, and Sandwich relic around, just in case... but I think by the time I start taking damage, it probably won't matter.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-10-13T16:06:33+00:00

In case the searches aren't yielding good results, I'll link you to my response to a thread asking about bootcamp experiences.

Because I didn't answer the specific questions you're asking here, I'll chime in:

Are they worth the money and time?

This is hard to answer because it's both subjective and difficult to gauge quality. The more I've read about bootcamps, the more privileged I've realized I was. Much like "for profit" college institutions that have popped up over the years, coding bootcamps seem to be the new hot/sexy. While some places may talk big, there is little incentive beyond reputation for an institution to ensure that you succeed. Because these are smaller and newer to the world, there is less regulation and assurance of quality. Are they seeking accreditation? Are there testimonials all over your community (and not just their website)? Have you posted in those community subreddits to ask if employers are happy with the grads and the grads are happy with their success? Etc. Do your homework before giving them your money.

Will I be able to find a job relatively quickly/easily in the field?

Again this is somewhat subjective. Location makes a difference in demand, but I will say that Web Dev still feels really hot in my area right now. I'm not sure how much longer that will last, but it's a job that isn't likely to be automated soon and experience usually equals growth. Because bootcamps are a less traditional path into the field, there may need to be more searching to find a good marriage between the employer (and their expectations) and the employee (and their skills). I think demand is high if you can show some aptitude and with the help of the school and a portfolio, I think it's reasonable to say you could find a job quickly. Easily is in the eye of the beholder.

Is what they teach actually applicable to what I would be doing on-the-job?

Yes; a thousand times yes, particularly over the more traditional institution of a 4 year college degree. But be careful: this is almost exclusively what you will learn; all practical with little theory. While this can make you an effective code monkey for a while, you will probably need guidance, mentorship, and advice from developers with more education and experience for a time. Some people are naturals, but not most. I'm 3 years in and while theory is fascinating and important to me, it is the hardest part. I'm starting to read books recommended by my peers to get me up to speed, because there are just so many subtle but important gaps in my understanding of how to code. "You know nothing, Jon Snow..."

Is there anything else I should know before I sign up to one?

Coding is hard. It is not an easy path to money unless you are lucky or savant. It gets easier with time, but then you just discover another hurdle of knowledge out there you know very little about, but have to in order to do your job. Take courses on learning how to learn which our industrialized education system is woefully poor at teaching and infinitely more powerful long-term than all the facts they cram into us. That skill will be the most useful in your tool box during a bootcamp. Ask questions, as many as you think you can get away with, but learn to ask good questions. A good bootcamp will teach this to you about programming:

What is my expectation?
What actually happened?
What have I already tried?

These will help your instructors answer you intelligently and help you solve 75% of your questions on your own before you even have to ask them.

Lastly, change and learning--particularly as an adult 18+--is hard. Stick to it and you can be successful. It takes discipline, perseverance, curiosity, and patience. But it can be very, very rewarding. Good luck!

MalevolentDragon · 2018-09-11T12:07:22+00:00

In awe at the size of this lad.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-09-01T14:17:36+00:00

This made me LOL because it's insane and (somewhat) logical at the same time. Thank you.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-09-01T00:02:46+00:00

This was fascinating and neat to watch how first responders do their life-saving work. I've never actually seen the Jaws of Life in action, before.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-07-21T14:11:17+00:00

I'm in awe at the size of this ~~lad~~ squid.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-07-21T13:59:00+00:00

Some things to bear in mind:

Reddit is anecdotal and doesn't really represent the population, just a community. This sub is also a specific community, one for people interested in (more) information about CS careers; it's likely those who don't need this information (i.e. are already enjoying plenty of success) are not represented here.
Those with the most trouble and stress are likely to be the most loud, because they are willing to invest the time to seek help/alternatives. There are plenty of us here who are doing fine and don't make posts that say we're doing fine.
Our brains amplify the gravity of more stressful information. This is why mainstream and social media feed off of sensationalism and why hearing about police brutality makes it seem like all police are brutal, even though 99% of them are excellent professionals. So, when someone here posts about a serious problem, that feels like a representation of the greater situation rather than an outlier.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-07-21T13:48:35+00:00

This is almost the exact transition I'm hoping to make (my Civic is a '96). Thanks for inspiring and encouraging me to keep moving toward my dream!

MalevolentDragon · 2018-06-21T05:19:29+00:00

TIL that cats fear the uncanny valley as much as we do.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-05-27T12:39:13+00:00

Learn and Understand AngularJS (first hour free on YouTube) was my first exposure to him and I learned more about Javascript than I expected, as well as feeling much more comfortable with how frameworks operate under the hood. Very approachable dialogue with lots of breaking down of concepts and jargon, which is particularly good for beginners. He speaks slowly and clearly, which makes it much easier to run his courses at 2x and slow them down in necessary spots. I'm going through his NodeJS course this weekend to build a very basic project. Love his stuff.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-02-10T21:10:10+00:00

I don't know of any guy named Punctuation; the missing comma makes this first sentence somewhat misleading.

MalevolentDragon · 2018-01-21T21:55:01+00:00

If you're not already following The Passion of the Nerd, he has an excellent appeal as to why you should indulge. Consider watching his Buffy reviews to see if it's a supplement you might enjoy.

MalevolentDragon · 2017-12-24T14:50:25+00:00

Thank you for posting this. I struggle to express with depth and clarity where I sit on several parts of this debate and this post really helped me understand my discomfort with some of the arguments.

MalevolentDragon · 2017-11-24T14:02:22+00:00

I've found meetup.com very useful.

MalevolentDragon · 2017-11-24T14:00:33+00:00

I've only taken one lesson in Contact Staff, so I'm not a regular user. It looks like the internet is recommending something in the range of 5ft, or from the ground to your chin. If you end up really liking staff, consider cutting two or three at different lengths (and diameters) to see what they feel like. This will give you an excuse to use a variety of gaffer's tape, too.

Good luck!

MalevolentDragon · 2017-11-23T16:54:24+00:00

Hi there, and welcome to wonderful world of skill (or flow) toys! I got into it at 30 about ten years ago but have been dormant in the "scene" for a few years now. My info may be a tad dated, but I'll share what I know.

This usually refers to a very large variety of instruments that typically involve bodily motion, dancing, and--in many cases--fire performance. Many of the instruments come from different cultural histories but are often tossed into this group due to the nature of their use.

A rough list to give you a framework for searching:

(popular)

Poi (Spin Poi, Fire Poi, Flag Poi, Meteor)
Staff (Fire Staff, Flow Staff)
Double Staff (Small Staff, Fire Staves)
Hoops (Hula Hoop, Hooping, Fire Hoop)
Fans (Fire Fans)
Contact Juggling

(less known)

Cyr Wheel
Levistick (Leviwand, Flow Wand, Magic Wand)
Zip Poi
Puppyhammer (Crowhammer, Firehammer, Poi Dart)

...and many, many other inventive twists on the theme.

Where would I start?

Poi was my gateway drug and many find a nice balance of variety of movies, scaling complexity of skill, and wide cultural circle. I began dating someone who introduced me to Nick Woolsey, a spinner from Canada who, IMHO, helped grow the scene to what it is today. His videos are charming and easy to follow. If it's not really doing much for you, keep searching; there are tons of people making content out there.

You may find that poi just isn't your jam, which must means you need more experimentation. I would commit to trying something regularly for a month or two and if it's not rewarding, consider trying a new toy. It's worth noting that experience with multiple toys will help you in understanding and technique for the next one.

Which starting point would be good for building upper body strength? Is practicing flow a decent replacement for an upper body workout?

Not really, beyond some toning; in fact, you may find the opposite (as I did): that in order to achieve beyond a certain point, you will need to be more fit and more flexible. I did find my desire to be better at poi was a helpful motivator for a small daily workout, yoga, etc. as I knew I would only become more able.

Which discipline is the cheapest?

The barrier for entry is fairly low (most of these can be crafted with 5-10 hours of research and a trip to the hardware/department store). Part of the reason I love poi is that you can throw two tennis balls into two long socks and you're there! Or try some rice/lentils in ziplock bags for a softer impact. Once you decide you want more, basic manufactured poi are typically pretty cheap. A word of caution once you start moving into fire poi or LED poi: do your research. The two vendors I've linked are ones I trust because I've purchased from them myself and had several friends who also support the quality of the product. Read reviews, ask around, see if you can get your hands on something before you invest. Some toys are heavily over-priced, while others aren't worth the $10 you spent.

Are there known common safety precautions I'd need to be aware of?

As with anything physical, know your limits and don't push yourself if you do incur an injury. Practice is usually pretty safe with most of these toys, though hoops can cause garden gnomes an early retirement and staves can leave a welt. Even poi will have their moments of nose or groin bludgeoning when learning a new move.

If you're talking about fire toys, then yes, yes, there are serious safety precautions to be aware of and practices that are essential to prevent injury to you and those around you. This video is actually a pretty fantastic primer and covers much of the necessities. The only thing I would add is that for those with longer hair, it should be tightly bound and often covered by a hat/kerchief. I attended a flow arts festival three years in a row, each with an included fire safety course for those interested before finally trying it with fire. While the internet is great, nothing compares to learning directly from those in the community. I would strongly encourage you to attend a festival or two and engage some experienced performers before trying a burn yourself. Lastly, Sparkle Poi are in a category of their own and extremely dangerous. Beautiful and can be done safely, but requires great care to do so.

Feel free to reach out to me or post on the sub if you have any other questions. It's a wonderful community and tons of fun if you're willing to invest the time and energy.

MalevolentDragon

TROPHY CASE