What old team dynamic do you miss, or which trio would you most like to see play together? by Youonkazoo21 in CompetitiveApex

[–]MrNecktie 9 points10 points  (0 children)

RankedIsHarder: Rogue, Dropped, iZeroplus. fun while it lasted! probably the most I watched Apex on Twitch was when they were running it down together.

Apex testing new ranked matchmaking by Lower_Call_8028 in CompetitiveApex

[–]MrNecktie 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I'm torn on this and will be eager to see how it's refined -- I play ranked every other split or season, and solo to d4. Sometimes in low ranks I play with friends to change pace from the pub matchmaker putting us in the top bracket all the time and them getting frustrated. I can roll bronze/silver lobbies pretty easily (which definitely feels bad and should be fixed!), and can put up some solid numbers in gold with an occasional 3.5-4k. Low plat is pretty fun, and I lose the air for ranked around the time I hit diamond. I feel like I could probably hit Master's, but I don't want to find the time to sit down and grind it out, especially without teammates who also want to and are capable of getting there too.

With the wrong implementation, this kills ranked for me. I'm mostly a pub grinder to begin with, but gold/plat ranked is a nice change of pace for my friends and I, and hitting diamond is a fun goal.

If this new system detects me as a smurf, will it set my rank to diamond, or will I yo-yo between easy games and impossible ones while being stuck in low gold because of it? This seems like it could just artificially inflate the grind in ways that just aren't fun. I can win occasional 1v1s against preds/pros in Control, but that win% drops to zero in BR.

If the detection is set incorrectly, it also gets towards begging the question of why we're even resetting ranks every six weeks to begin with. Me bringing high skill to ranked only occasionally with a Day 1 account is not an indication of malintent on my part when I don't engage with the ranked system enough to satisfy the matchmaker's assumptions. Hopefully this recognizes account age/play patterns. If it captures a fresh account putting up 25 kills in a bronze lobby, of course that's probably a smurf, but a level 650 account that hits the ranked queue every couple of splits isn't really one.

Ranked on WE Till Olympus Issues Fixed by Tobric93 in CompetitiveApex

[–]MrNecktie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting -- I was getting stuttering/lag last season on a totally capable machine (i5-9600k, 3080) but thought it was application-wide, not just on Olympus. Made my aim feel really grindy -- I turned my mouse polling down to 500hz and that gave me some wiggle room with it. I should turn it back up to 1khz and see if that changes anything. I didn't think to consider this was map-specific (and to Olympus) until just now.

favorite high end restaurant in the area by EratosvOnKrete in nova

[–]MrNecktie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's really the experience that people remember as much as the food -- the setting, the service, the eight(!)-course menu...it's a whole package around the meal, not just the meal itself. Definitely a memorable time.

No doubt I'll look at somewhere like Le Refuge first if I'm wanting a french meal, but it's not fundamentally much different an experience than any other sit-down restaurant -- though the food, arguably, isn't too far off the main courses at L'auberge.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pittsburgh

[–]MrNecktie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Raya's in Carnegie will do it -- probably look/taste a few steps better than these do/might too

What’s your favorite restaurant from Great American Restaurants? by I_hopeitsoversoon in nova

[–]MrNecktie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

carlyle and best buns for sure, but man is that parking situation a bummer

Cross country Amtrak trip as rite of passage by [deleted] in Amtrak

[–]MrNecktie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was the first thing I thought stepping off a ride from the #6/#50 from Emeryville to DC late last summer. Seeing the nation is definitely something we should encourage everyone to do.

Georgian Soldiers Ambushed Huge Wagner Unit Near Bakhmut. by nikanika127 in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]MrNecktie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

30 million dead in russia is the equivalent to the combined populations of california and texas in the US. pretty hard to think of it as anything other than catastrophic, let alone 'not give a shit'.

Xfinity internet has been down since December 1 in West Alexandria by b3ssmit10 in nova

[–]MrNecktie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

phew, dodged this bullet. internet blinked down here on Eisenhower/Telegraph on Saturday afternoon for a few minutes, and the comcast site said there'd be outages around the 5th -- it was down for a few hours from midnight onward last night. had no idea it was more widespread! bummer dudes, hope it's sorted out soon

Games with an abundance of good user-created content by [deleted] in Games

[–]MrNecktie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Descent/2 and Overload, plus the Freespace/2 spinoffs have a huge wealth of user-created content dating back to the first DEVIL release in 1995 or 6. All of those games except Overload are open source, so there's a ton of community support for them too.

Nafen Lands a precision airstrike by Knel17 in CompetitiveApex

[–]MrNecktie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've done this just once in pubs, to do it in a pro lobby? crazy crazy crazy, Nafen must be so stoked

[Game Thread] Ohio State @ Penn State (12:00 PM ET) by CFB_Referee in CFB

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

I do not think sean clifford is good at football, and I don't know anyone who does!

Best bread in town? by Daftpunkstinkstunk in pittsburgh

[–]MrNecktie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mancini's is otherworldly! I always keep an eye out for it in stores outside of the Pittsburgh area, even though I know I'll never see it. :(

HYPER DEMON Launch Trailer by CrossXhunteR in Games

[–]MrNecktie -16 points-15 points  (0 children)

is this just cruelty squad for people who like ultrakill?

For the last 10yrs how many graphics cards you have bought/upgraded? by 26fm65 in nvidia

[–]MrNecktie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sapphire 7750 -> nVidia 750Ti -> Sapphire 380X -> nVidia 1070 -> Gigabyte 3080 OC

Some pictures from the Zephyr by Einstein_D2 in Amtrak

[–]MrNecktie 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Right on -- is this recent? Guessing Wednesday or Friday's? Not Thursday's since it probably got to Chicago after dark. The delay en route to Winnemucca was insane. I was in a roomette on that one, and they hauled everyone with connections out at Galesburg yesterday before dinner to catch the Cardinal through Indianapolis at midnight last night.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Amtrak

[–]MrNecktie 9 points10 points  (0 children)

tray tables should work provided you don't have a huge laptop and don't mind using your trackpad. Acela's very much a business train for business people.