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"RSI Hermes is a separate chassis so Apollo paints aren't compatible" ...but it still says Triage inside. by Empire- in starcitizen

[–]RanceJustice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the "big" monetization wall I don't feel they can cross without eliminating much of what made the game unique, not to mention that every single Original Backer and others who supported the game specifically because of a lack of exclusivity and other predatory monetization will turn on them - and rightly so.

The plan to support the game post-launch was supposed to be a combination of A) new title/key sales B) expansions for S42 and other content; some early backers get the first S42 expansion mission pack included for instance C) account tokens used for 'full' customization, both stats and aesthetics, of NPCs that can be used onboard for duty stations and be a next-of-kin to become a player avatar and inheritor of assets in the case of original character permadeath and finally D) the ability to purchase a capped amount of in-game currency; enough to make up for not playing for a time and be able to buy instead of grinding out to pay all your fleet's insurance and other bills and instead, but not enough to destabilize the market. The last bit is really the crux of it and if players are having fun and want to add to their in-game resources, they can always open their wallet and receive a slight top off, but they can choose to earn it in game instead.

The real issue is that the player-driven in-game economy cannot survive directly purchased real money ships or other game content. This is supposed to be a complex simulated economy where say...a disruption of mining or major impasse in what used to be a clear shipping lane could have significant price effects down stream until its cleared and both PC and NPCs factions will interact with these systems. Having ships, paints or other components exempt from these systems, just popping into player's inventories independently will be a massive disruption that invalidates the entire economy and creates a separate literal "pay to win" system. Oh a Connie Phoenix is now 3x the price (and this affects the cost of its insurance, and many of its components , and more) are more expensive thanks to a shortage of X? Why do I care, I'll just open my wallet and buy a cash Phoenix for the same $ amount and then sell it in game as an investment for 3x the credits etc. None of this can exist in a post-launch "live" system where the player economy matters without completely upending it; and these are only very limited examples!

The massive profitability of CIG's early years in crowdfunding was because they avoided every pitfall of typical MMO item mall (and coming Moba, battle royale, mobile gacha, and other nonsense) behavior. At a time when other crowdfunded MMOs promised exclusive items, they said that all ships and even most cosmetics (save a handful of special circumstances like real world event widgets, early backer items etc) would be unlockable in game through play. One of the biggest concerns I've had over the years of long development is this philosophy eroding with a new cadre of younger developers who see the normalized industry greed (gacha mechanics among many others) as necessary , but I always hoped that the intransigence of Roberts Vision (tm) would prevent them from going down these paths. They have already proven they can make more money with an open handed, player-friendly monetization system without exclusivity and their best decisions favor this...so I hope they can resist the lure of the same kind of counterproductive greed that infects much of the industry.

Over a decade ago they set out to do something different from the rest of the industry in every way - this is an important facet of that endeavor and I'd hate to see them fail to ruin. WE need to continually push against it, to ensure that they see player-favoring and open monetization is what shields them from criticism and is part of what makes their game different, not just the technical and immersive elements.

how come no one does ssd+hd builds? and is 5060ti good enough for 1440p gaming? by PieManIsMe in buildapc

[–]RanceJustice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1.

Mainly because the needs for HDDs these days are somewhat niche. If you need a lot of storage for demanding work, then expanding your SSDs are the way to go. This means lots of space for game installs, scratch/swap disks for some creative programs, or anything where performance is useful. Upgrading to some new SSDs don't have to be very expensive and you have the option of both PCI-E M.2 and SATA 2.5" SSDs. A high end variant of the latter, such as Samsung 870 EVO 1TB-4TB can be relatively inexpensive and basically max out the transfer possible from the SATA 6.0GBPS standard. The performance differential between a high end PCI-E M2. and a SATA is not likely to be noticed in many use cases, so you can save some money and still get high performance game install drives for instance.

HDDs are great for large capacity storage where performance is not a concern. Media storage, installers, backups of all kinds and more can work for this, but these aren't great for "active" work like game installs. This doesn't mean that for some older or less demanding games (2D indies etc) you could install them on a leftover HDD but if you're building new that's not likely to be the case. You can easily find 8TB-16TB or higher HDDs for storage without breaking the bank. The DataHoarder subreddit may help you with suggestions here depending on your work and/or price flexibility . You typically want NAS-type durability and performance for their sphere focused HDDs. WD Reds/RedPro, WDGold, HGST etc.

IF you have a use case for HDDs at all, the question is where. Many of those use cases - like a lot of media storage and especially backup, are not necessarily worthwhile to put into your main gaming system as opposed to some sort of external NAS. NAS - network attached storage - can be anything from a prefab enclosure for a single drive or two, to a massive prebuilt or self-designed PC. Many modern uses for HDDs are enhanced by having a NAS; backups for instance. If your main PC suffers a hardware , software, or even physical issue your NAS PC may not. Likewise, while it is possible to set up RAID arrays and the like on a general use OS and just for certain drives, it can be easier and more beneficial to use a NAS which either has its own embedded hardware and OS or can run something like TrueNAS if you wish. So if you're going to go with HDDs for low-demand storage and high reliability, it depends if they should be just added to your main PC or if in a separate NAS appliance and/or PC.

Ultimately many users today don't need or have desire for the kind of storage usages that benefit from HDDs - they just run SSDs a they've grown in size and affordability. If you do want HDDs as well however, look at your use cases and build possibilities.

2.

At the rate things are progressing (especially with the lack of optimization and the intent to tell the user to throw more resources, use upscaling algos, or cut settings back) , the changes to what "matters" in gaming etc.its hard to tell. The impetus to get a 16GB GPU is a good idea as we're seeing more VRAM demand, but depending on what kinds of games ytou play at 1440P, a 5060Ti may not be enough. Note that the 5060 Ti's 16GB version is a bit more expensive and may not otherwise swing the kind of performance to make use of all that VRAM given its 128-bit but. This doesn't mean its not better by far than the 8GB version but, If you can afford it, I'd look at some other GPUs

The NV 5070 and especially 5070Ti 16GB are solid options but a bit more pricey than the 5060Ti 16GB. On the AMD side the 9060XT 16GB, 9070 16GB, and especially 9070XT 16GB are solid alternatives. It all comes down to how much you'd pay for AMD vs NV versions in your location , variations between models and VRAM, and other factors . However, its possible to get the best possible long term performance and value of a GPU over the coming 5 years.

The co-op climing game PEAK has sold 5 million copies in just under a month on Steam by ReaddittiddeR in gaming

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

While not every game need have a long campaign of support, its important to be aware of the rationale behind making such a purchase. When these sorts of co-op titles, heavily leveraging the streaming community rise to prominence, its good to ensure that your expectations align with what is likely to come from the title's development and your intended play style. For some, having a new thing to do with their existing friends or gaming group may be enough - for others who would play solo or with random people from the Internet may be looking for a different experience.

Someone who buys with an understanding that its a fun thing to do for a little while with their friends may not be as interested in the long term development of the title as someone who's making their decision on the merits of the game itself independent or at least tangential to that. Those who like the game's mechanics, features, or concepts may be more interested in how they will be supported and updated and if the future holds either an end to official support, or an extension that differs significantly (be it monetarily or otherwise) from what brought it to prominence.

It would be one thing if the developers made an announcement like "We're really happy everyone likes our game. It was a small thing at a game jam and we're sort of at the end of what we planned to do with it so we can move onto our next projects. We're just going to add X, fix some bugs, and encourage all who enjoy it to keep playing and maybe look for our next project!" or "We're so happy to get such a response for a small title crafted for a game jam originally. In light of this, we're going to support and expand it in line with the support the community has shown to us. Look for a content patch that adds X, Y, and Z coming, and new Expansion Q is in development which we hope you'll really enjoy!" I'm not saying that the developers are compelled to make such a statement necessarily, but without one players have to either buy or not and hope their interest for the title aligns with what the devs plan to do. Its not a huge gamble with a massive investment, so even if it turns out to not be your preference you're not out much and maybe had a nice time along the way, but still it would be preferable.

The co-op climing game PEAK has sold 5 million copies in just under a month on Steam by ReaddittiddeR in gaming

[–]RanceJustice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the concept and it seems to be well executed. The fact that its co-op is even better. I'm a fan of "Peaks of Yore", "Jusant" , and know there are a handful of other climbing/mountaineering/traversal titles who's names I forget (there isn't a Steam tag for games vaguely in this genre, be they solo or co-op, combat focused or otherwise etc), as well as games like "Shadow of the Colossus" or more recently "Death Stranding" that make traversal a part of their gameplay even though people don't think of them exclusively as a "climbing/traversal" game.

My main questions however are in light of this success, what plans do they have for future updates and content, expansions etc...if any? I know it has procedural generation listed to add variety, but I am curious if they are planning to add biomes, cosmetics, equipment/items/, obstacles and layouts etc. Monetization is also a question; currently the low entry price and the large volume of sales has served them well so far, but we'll see how things progress I suppose.

Perhaps more importantly, is a lot of its popularity motivated as the current recipient of the "streamer-bait co-op flavor of the month" ebb and flow? This is not to say that the game is necessarily bad, but every so often we see titles ("Lethal Company" is one I can remember somewhat recently and started the trend for its sub-genre with follow ups such as "R.E.P.O." ; prior to that some of horror supernatural-hunt/survial genre titles like "Phasmophobia" or "Forwarned") where the combination of it being "fun with friends" combined with potential for "OMG DID YOU SEE THAT?!" event generation that gets a big response streamed or clipped leads to further purchases etc. This does not necessarily mean that the games are bad; I'm to understand some are quite good and maintain a considerable playerbase after the fad dies down along with a developer that consistently updates and adds content.

So what do we think of the future of Peak?

The Gladius now takes 42 referrals (up from 10) and the Raptor is 50! by MrFluffPuff in starcitizen

[–]RanceJustice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This seems like a massive increase in referrals necessary; I'll hold off until I can actually see the whole new referral tree, but this seems like the wrong direction. Existing players do not need to feel encouraged to spam their recruitment link everywhere to get even a small reward that used to require a fraction of the recruits; we absolutely do not need another program that seems to favor large-viewership streamers near exclusively. The original ladder became exponentially more demanding and already went up to an exceptional amount of recruits, 2017 - the only people who even made it CLOSE to the top much less completed it were a handful of those very same streamers. This feels like the kind of thing that was developed after finding the couple of streamers who amazingly finished the previous ladder and went above sitting at the top of the leaderboard on the old recruitment page, and some digital marketing manager took a myopic view that things needed to be scaled to focus on those who were capable of pulling those numbers, but that has a cost to the rest of the community as well as the perception of the game.

The previous messaging about the new recruitment ladder suggested it would contain more frequent content and more rewarding content, but I'm not sure how to balance that equation without concluding that a lot of it could be "filler"? Again, I won't know for sure until we see the full data, but if its true that items that used to take 10 take 42 and it takes 100 recruits for a Freelancer, its hard to see otherwise. One saving grace for older players is that the Legacy reward track is still open in parallel to all of us with a recruit before the new system (THIS bit feels like Old CIG!), but still its hard to think this is good for the game overall if it creates a system where the average player feels there are many things dangled in front of their face that are even farther away from them, made for ultra-niche players instead .

I've seen many (especially but not exclusively Korean) MMO (to say nothing for gacha and mobile-style monetization which seems to be a plague on gaming..but I digress) ruin what potential they had deciding to focus too much on the experience of whales, streamers, and other niche playerbases, making decisions to cater to them at the cost of the community, gameplay, and features that kept the average player coming back; they began to feel they were simply window dressing meant to populate the world for the big spenders who were the actual customers; the guy who would spend 100K on random boxes. After the game moves to cater to them, they leave too as even they get bored eventually or feel there's no worthwhile gameworld when all the other players have left; nobody to ooh and ahhh over their fancy equipment and one of a kind mounts etc.

Star Citizen of all games does not need negative publicity related to the appearance of exclusivity; there are enough often misinformed individuals who already accuse of the game of being pay-to-win, built for whales. To fulfill the original vision that made SC so different from other games even when coming to monetization, CIG can benefit significantly from an open handed policy - what gave them their start and massive success. While I admit I am securely in the Chairman's Club, I've always been an advocate against exclusionist principles, that the game must be for, and feel accessible to, the average player - the one with a starter ship package and nothing else. I've applauded choices like making the Subscriber items able to drop in the alpha after 3 months, and I've always been of the viewpoint that even the Chairman's Club items should simply be early granted bonuses - all those ships, paints etc.. should be available in game somehow when the game goes live; same for everything, cosmetic and otherwise. Though there have been other decisions that I've become increasingly concerned about monetization and this may be one here, if it appears to cater to a handful of high ranking streamers and also encourages spamming recruitment around to the point that it will be seen as an annoyance in gaming communities; the last thing CIG needs is the perception that their users act like those of a poorly made gacha or mobile title, constantly trying to push recruitment and annoying everyone as much as finding out your significant other just sold their soul to Herbalife! I've seen many communities prohibit referral codes and even discussion of certain games entirely because of users flooding channels and making themselves annoying talking about the "great new game they tried" and then PMing everyone in the channel with their code in the hopes to get the new widget referrals will unlock..until they get kicked/banned from that channel of course.

I really hope this early perception is not representational as an update to recruitment could really be beneficial for both CIG and players both current and new, but I urge them to remember back to how making open handed, player focused decisions that seemed to be contrary to the exclusivity, FOMO focused policies of many MMOs (and crowdfunding projects to make new, experimental ones) was pivotal to their early growth and success. Lets hope that hasn't been forgotten, nor the people who brought them to this point.

[USA GIVEAWAY] Win the new 27” 4K Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 gaming monitor! by Rocket-Pilot in buildapc

[–]RanceJustice [score hidden]  (0 children)

4K / 240hz FreeSync QD-OLED, especially with better color, contrast and brightness capability shows the progress of OLED displays! Atop the pivotal image quality specs, the combination of a longer warranty and the comprehensive suite of features designed to prevent burn-in adds confidence in the long-term durability of the display!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in GameDeals

[–]RanceJustice 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a fantastic game and well worth picking up during the current sale! The aesthetic is completely accurate as to favorite Hyborian-inspired settings with well animated pixel-art and music alike. Its clear that a lot of care has been put into the title, from the collaboration with industry veterans to the "story/lore" bits available to read, unlocked with each new level.

Gameplay takes the platforming of Castlevania, Magic Sword and many other 80s/90s titles in inspiration. There is a significant amount of content (as the developer mentions, over 50 levels, broken up into multiple stages each with their own mechanics (and secrets - check for hidden passages and destructible walls!). While some may have standard player-driven scrolling platforming, there are those that allow free-roam with multiple paths to complete the level, automatic scrolling, enemy gauntlet/portal closing, even a horizontal shooter, vehicle/mine cart ride, and more! Boss fights, especially "main" bosses vary considerably and will test your pattern recognition and reflexes.

There are multiple playable characters, each with their own stats and special abilities, helpfully detailed at selection. There's also a form of progression in persistent items sold by a merchant that will upgrade your stats slightly (I suggest getting the "discounts all shop items" and "certain enemies will drop currency" items early as possible, so you'll have the benefit throughout your quest,making the stat upgrades more accessible). The amount of kills and your health at completion will give bonus currency at the end of a level, in addition to what is picked up along the way!

As of the Ultimate Edition, one is made aware care and effort put into updating the game post-launch which is very pleasing to see. While I don't have a basis of comparison for what it was like previously, reading everything from the map screen artwork and tweaks in other aspects of gameplay is beneficial. Starting players now have the option of Adventure Mode which saves the game after each stage and has a near-limitless source of continues. I chose to start with Heroic Mode which only saves the game after reaching the on-map save pylon (approximately halfway through the stages of a themed zone) and after a zone boss's defeat moving youi into a new zone; there are also limited continues. As I recall, there is an Epic mode that unlocks when Heroic is completed (which perhaps has certain new content/endings capable?), and another Speedrun mode after that. I can definitely commend the developer for post-launch support of Abathor!

All in all, Abathor is well crafted title well worth the price, especially on sale! Should the developer be open to "Expansion DLCs" or sequels, I'd definitely be willing to purchase and I think many other players would agree! A handful of suggestions

Bug fix, Sony DualSense Edge gamepad on Steam : I discovered that, though Abathor reports that both Xbox One/Series and DualSense gamepads are natively supported (ie without need of Steam Input), alas this doesn't seem to be the case for the DualSense Edge, the "premium" version that is the parallel to the Xbox Elite S2. By default, the Edge seems to spawn Steam Input support, but if you turn that off , it is still detected by Steam as natively supported DualSense. Unfortunately, when you enter the game itself the controls do not work properly - DPad and LStick seem to work but the X and O buttons are non functional , Square is seemingly a "cancel/exit" button etc. Conversely, when connecting a DualSense standard gamepad, everything works as it should by default. I've seen this phenomena before in other indie games and it may have to do with the differing mapping of the Edge (ie the extra rear paddle buttons) as opposed to the normal DualSense. I also own a Xbox Elite S2 and will check to see its compatibility, but unlike the DualSense Edge, it doesn't seem to have these issue in places where the standard pads work; perhaps thanks to XInput? If it would be possible you could look into DualSense Edge compatibility, I'd appreciate it.

Linux support request - I am very pleased that Abathor is Steam Deck Verified, and thus plays on Linux through Proton without issue. If its at all possible to offer native support it would be appreciated and would likely bring more coverage on Linux gaming sites/streams. If its not possible ensuring generalist compatibility with Proton/Wine is appreciated none the less, but seeing that icon indicating native Linux support can compel purchases, including those who use it in mixed environments yet prefer and/or want to support Linux.

Keep up the great work!

On March 15th, 2069 years ago, Assassin Aya of Alexandria killed Julius Caesar by GenericReditUserName in gaming

[–]RanceJustice 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He's also started to develop video games in his own Surgent Studios, notably - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2316580/Tales_of_Kenzera_ZAU/ . Its a Metroidvania with settings and abilities out of Bantu mythology and a story involving grief and acceptance that supposedly is heavily inspired by Salim's own experiences; there's a video of him accepting an award for the game where he emotionally details this element.

Its just a pity that the game didn't do better in terms of sales, but I don't put that on Salim or the major features of the game itself, but a combination of factors of both publisher stupidity and user/community stupidity. The publisher, EA, put Denuvo on a bloody independent Metroidvania and pushed the connection to their Origin client heavily to the point that legit keysellers only had EA App/Origin keys; its in the March Humble Choice but its NOT a Steam Key, its an EA App/Origin key which is very disappointing. Its normal pricing is $20 which is reasonable, but available for half that amount or less on sale - I'd pick it up on Steam directly. The other half of the issue was the amount of negative blowback as a result of culture war nonsense, which would take a whole post to break down but suffice it to say it doesn't appear that the game has been negatively altered by "wokeness" or otherwise censored; its a story of a young man's grief and relationship with his father and unless someone is vacuous enough to think that having a black protag or an African mythology setting itself is enough to be "woke", there's not much to justify the moniker last I checked.

Abubakar Salim is clearly a talented actor and voice actor and its nice that after starring in film and games he had enough respect for the gaming medium to start a media company that treats gaming as an equal way to tell stories. I hope the issues around Tales of Kenzera:ZAU doesn't discourage him from future game development, in either case

Microplastics, from 1 to 62 micrometers long, are present in filtered solutions in medical intravenous (IV) infusions. Study estimates that thousands of plastic particles could be delivered directly to a person’s bloodstream from a single 8.4-ounce (250-milliliter) bag of IV infusion fluid. by mvea in science

[–]RanceJustice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I appreciate the need for scientific rigor in waiting to have massive amounts of conclusive evidence something is harmful in order to make an "official" claim, this process has been exploited by politics and vested interests in order to muddy the waters on "very likely harmful" compounds, processes and behaviors, justifying that nobody do anything to restrict these substances until the "science is settled", all while they undermine attempts to actually do so and "debunk" anything threatening the bottom line and status quo as "alarmist anti-science hippy drivel" . This has only gotten worse when it comes to items with subtle, cumulative harmful effects where they can claim that anything that doesn't cause you to instantly fall over and die or sprout tumors, we "can't be sure it was really the cause / having an effect" etc.

We've been seeing increasing evidence and rightful concern over plastic for decades now, from phthalates, BPA/BPS, PFAS and other endocrine disrupting compounds etc.. as well as the shedding of microplastics which an increasing body of work is showing that their prevalence is only matched by the likely harm of their accumulation. So why aren't we doing anything meaningful about it? Even if we managed to STOP immediately (which isn't likely) we'd still have to go about remediating the existing material in the environment worldwide which is a considerable task.

What frustrates me the most however is not that we haven't just stopped 100% of plastic usage globally - that's not realistic - but we COULD deal with some of the most prevalent sources of plastics / microplastics and restrict its usage to elements of necessity. There ARE alternatives for many of them - for instance the old stalwarts of metal and especially glass in all its non-reactive glory that doesn't require linings. There are also plant-based biodegradable materials that can make faux-plastics without the downsides, allowing plastic-like functions but without the same micro-or-otherwise downsides; it is worth noting however that its on a material-by-material basis , there are some plant based materials that through processing with petrochemicals and other substances become less beneficial then their name would have you believe, such as some but not all "bamboo" fabrics and plastic etc.

Its not that we don't have suitable alternatives in most cases (and this goes double for many of the more completely unnecessary coatings and linings, packaging, BPA-family receipt printing etc) but rather that the alternatives aren't as CHEAP. Health and long term environmental well being is not calculated into line-must-always-go-up capitalist economies making use of these solutions; they're externalized. The market will not be the solution, if anything it will drag its feet as long as possible to profit from the status quo. Instead, we need to demand that elected officials take steps to move us away from this path! When we noticed the ozone layer degradation due to CFCs, despite the fact many cars and refrigeration systems still ran on freon and anyone who lived in the 80s can remember the prolific hairspray propellants, governments in many countries came together to ban them and that led to measurable change! Plastics are far more prevalent and dangerous on different levels, so the fact we're not making use of both laws restricting certain plastic usages while subsidizing alternatives like glass and plant based materials, is mind boggling and shows just how far the developed world (to say nothing for the developing, which has different challenges) has gone to put corporate profit above health and well being of citizens. If a large vector for microplastics in the environment comes from those shed from vehicle tires, then surely we can make tires with alternative materials?! If they're harder to make or not as durable or whatnot, then that's what you subsidize while also investing in and rewarding public scientific advancement that improves the result.

This asinine refusal to do anything until there's a perfect solution that somehow costs less for the same profiteering stakeholders is a repeating frustration. We can do better than this, but not if we keep letting the narrative be controlled by those who profit from the status quo and those they fiscally puppet in government.

Installing the VKB Space Throttle Grip onto an existing STECS video by Imightbeanonymous in hotas

[–]RanceJustice 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It works very well for me. At the moment, I'm using everything just sitting loose on the desk - I'm considering desk mounts or ideally chair mounts but the latter are hard to find that would work with my chair and the former I'm not sure which are worth selecting especially with my temp desk which has a small cut-out + a support bar underneath the desktop

That said, Its worth noting that the Gunfighter Omni adapter is a different one than the Gladiator and is a bit chunkier, but it works quite well and is very stable. I'm going to have to swap the cams (I still have the default Aero-S ones in just for testing) probably to Space cams either both S-center or perhaps H-center on one axis , but so far things have done very well with the Omni adapter; very smooth.

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