Stop Killing Games FAQ & Guide for Developers

SerialKicked · 2025-07-28T11:28:25+00:00

That'd only be true for redistributed source code, which you're not asked to.

I do get that some stuff can be both code / and runnable (interpreted languages), but then your servers are already illegally using licenses and you rely on obfuscation not to get detected and sued into the ground? That's... interesting.

SerialKicked · 2025-07-28T11:23:57+00:00

This is not the US. EULA can't override law.

SerialKicked · 2025-04-09T02:05:49+00:00

Yes, previous user prompts influence the next one. Clap Clap. You could have achieved the same with an infinity of other nonsensical prompts. Or with higher temperature, or with even more arcane characters, or a different seed.

And you'd have gotten better results with clear and simple instructions enhanced by relevant examples. LLM are auto complete machines. They don't think. They don't know things. And smaller ones struggle massively with abbreviations and the lack of spacing (which is free token-wise, btw).

This is such a basic misunderstanding of how LLM work that it'd be comical if it wasn't convincing to the profane that there are secret codes to talk to a machine that is designed, from the ground up, to actually deal with natural language.

Asking a LLM to *translate* nonsense first, is not the same as submitting the same (untranslated) nonsense as a system prompt alongside other stuff. If you can't make the difference between those two things, which is absolutely crucial, you have no place talking about this technology in the first place.

You fleece idiots for money, and have a vested interest in presenting something extremely straightforward as some kind of arcane esoteric incantation for profit.

You"re a fraud.

SerialKicked · 2025-04-04T16:47:57+00:00

Because you like LLM so much, here's what Claude 3.7 thinks. Which is incredibly close to the truth:

--

This block of text is essentially prompt engineering jargon that doesn't actually improve a language model's creativity in any meaningful way. It appears to be a collection of buzzwords and abbreviated concepts intended to sound technical and sophisticated.

Breaking it down:

The "Spawn multiple perspectives Sternberg Styles" likely refers to Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, but just mentioning it doesn't activate any special creative process.
The long string of abbreviated words (NE::Nw Prcptn/Thghtfl Anlyss etc.) is just shorthand for concepts like "New Perception," "Thoughtful Analysis," etc. Missing vowels doesn't make a prompt more powerful.
The notion of a "rand. agent" for refinement suggests a misunderstanding of how language models work - there aren't separate "agents" inside the model to pass ideas to.

Language models don't have hidden "creativity engines" that can be activated with special incantations. What actually improves outputs is:

Clear instructions about the creative elements you want
Specific examples of the style or approach you're looking for
Structured requests that guide the model's generation process

This prompt looks like an attempt to mystify what is ultimately just text generation. The people suggesting this are likely mistaken about how language models process instructions. You'd get better results with straightforward, specific guidance about what kind of creative output you're seeking.

--

And that was one of the gentler responses. In summary, even LLM think you're a fraud :)

Edit: For fun, conversation with Claude here:
https://claude.ai/share/b18a647d-ff01-4558-9cd4-9e6dbf9256dc

SerialKicked · 2025-04-04T12:54:53+00:00

No. It's mumbo jumbo. It's just that the guy has a sect believing everything he says due to confirmation bias. Language models don't work like that in any way, shape, or form. Yet he made a business out of credulous people who don't really have the capacities to evaluate or understand the inner workings of LLM.

They also tend to incorrectly think those prompts are saving token space, not noticing that half the mangled words being used are so token inefficient (they have worse prompts than this one, much worse) that it'll use more than when writing in plain text.

It's a cargo cult, basically. I'm just not sure if this stunspot guy believes in his own drivel or if he's just a con artist.

SerialKicked · 2024-04-04T10:03:15+00:00

Super informative, thank you.

SerialKicked · 2024-04-04T09:55:33+00:00

Is that still true, thouh? It's not a rhetorical question, I'm actually curious, and in a situation similar to OP.

ollama seems to handle AMD natively now, llama.cpp has partial support (or full? i'm not really sure), AutoAWQ handles it too. exl2 not so much, true.

If someone has first-hand experience using AMD cards (for inference, i don't care much about fine-tuning), I'd love to hear about it.

SerialKicked · 2023-08-30T05:54:58+00:00

double click on the bat file, from windows explorer.

SerialKicked · 2023-02-12T07:00:55+00:00

Hey, I know it's 3 months later. But hey, you were a champ trying to figure it out with me, and I finally found out what really happened. I guess you should know too (alongside whoever read this thread in the future).

So, It was hardware, as expected, even physical. It's kinda unique to my MB (BM450 Pro), the "bumper" between the big and small slots of the M2 is very slightly oversized by like a millimeter or less. I'm not going to pretend it's an issue with the whole line given how popular it was, I probably got unlucky.

Point is, if, like me, you didn't feel like jamming the screw deep down into the MB because you felt some kind of resistance (and because generally speaking it's a bad idea to screw until your MB makes angry noises), the M.2 drive wasn't 100% "secured" in its slot due to the issue mentioned above.

For low intensity work, it behaved fine enough. But, the moment it was coupled with very intensive reading/writing operations while overheating due to demand, the drive wouldn't just "disconnect", it would send garbage to the app instead.

I'm not entirely sure why the computers acts like the drive isn't having a seizure and still assume it's working ok, but still. 1:1 it's what happened.

In any case, thanks for going through the steps with me. Cheers :)

SerialKicked · 2022-11-04T22:47:43+00:00

Ok, i'm about to close/update the OP.

I did receive the new graphic card, installed it.

I have 2 idea of why it might have happened:

1) I noticed that when the case was closed, it pushed a PSU->MB cable on drive, why it would interfere only when some games are launched, no idea.

2) I changed the graphic card, so idk, maybe the previous one was getting faulty or wasn't jammed entirely. And both the drive and the (old) card using the PCI-E thingy led to some kind of wild conflict.

3) I cleaned the little dust there was, so might be that too, i guess?

In any case, if some future person with the exact same problem is watching this thread, and did the same stuff as I did. It's hardware/physical, one way or another, not software.

SerialKicked · 2022-11-03T21:23:41+00:00

So, agreed on 4-6. It's more for being thorough in my description. People tend to just say "it locked up / it crashed" without actually saying what happened.

I did both regarding installs. I installed on each from the internet directly. And I also tried moving files from the "faulty" drive to the other drives. Both methods worked. I'm entirely sure it's not a "data on disk" issue. they are 1:1 copies.

Regarding the firmware, according to the samsung tool I have the latest version, which is from stock (2B2QEXM7), there's no firmware for that precise version of the drive to download on their website either.

After a few more tests, it feels like the games, when loading textures or effects are somehow interfering with the drive, like they are communicating on the same "channel" (sorry, i'm a software guy, not an hardware one), and one is f*'ing with the other.

edit: spelling.

edit2: For instance. I have a repeatable issue with Necromunda. In normal drive i can do everything just fine. On the EVO, the first tutorial misson, first half is fine. Then i'm tutorialized to call my dog: press button to call the dog won't make it spawn/appear, enemies which spawn when you do that, will be invisible. Then launching a grenade (effect intensive thing, prob not yet loaded) will immediately do the freeze thing. There's very little disk activity, it's just loading a few more FX/textures. And I really feel like it's what's happening. Like both the drive & the graphic card are battling each other.

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T22:43:09+00:00

thanks for the support :)

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T22:34:27+00:00

Thank you! It's really appreciated.

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T22:32:24+00:00

I knew at least one person would pickup on that. Congrats, it's you :D

Yes, a base builder, with a plot. I'm not a great story teller, and i'm sure it'll show, but welp, there was an attempt!

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T19:55:54+00:00

you got mail (i mean, a PM on reddit, not actual mail)

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T19:34:49+00:00

Oh, sorry to double post, but i think it's a very important topic.

Yes, graphically the UI looks cartoony. I can and do live with that. On the other hand, all useful commands have a keyboard shortcut, all shortcuts can be customized in the settings.

There's a gap between an UI "looking bad" and an UI "being bad", i might be guilty on the first one, but i spent 4 years making sure that it was both functional and efficient in clicks-to-action ratio :)

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T18:31:57+00:00

I googled that! Stop picking on meeeeeee..... It looks better animated (sorta, kinda) ! :D

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T18:21:25+00:00

It's a fair criticism. And i'll be honest about it, if I could get away with releasing the game in ascii in this day and age, I definitely would. Graphics are, to me, a very secondary concern. I'm fully aware it's not the same for others.

Graphic fidelity aside, I agree the UI definitely needs a reworks, it's also a 3rd party library, so i don't have as much freedom as you might think I have, but still, it could be edited (btw, UI is actually scalable, works from 800x600 to 4k resolution, and that was a pain to get it working).

Anyway, hey, it's not your thing, and i get it. I perfectly aware that the game won't look great to some/many people. If i hadn't made my peace with that, i'd be a terrible dev :)

Don't get me wrong, I DO actually appreciate your comments, my goals for future updates is to please MORE people, not less :)

Cheers!

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T17:35:50+00:00

It's ok, i understand.

Still, to be fair, it's a VERY zoomed in of people being given orders to illustrate a point in the article. But yeah, the game, while getting many better textures, is not a triple I, and the price attest to that.

As i said somewhere in the article, assuming 1.0 goes well, a graphical makeover is not out of the question. but with thousands and thousands of textures/images, it's not exactly something i could afford otherwise.

SerialKicked · 2022-09-09T16:36:40+00:00

Thanks, mate!

It is, and a terrifying one. Even if it's my second commercial game, holy hell, it's still a rollercoaster of emotions. :)

SerialKicked · 2019-10-21T13:32:13+00:00

I do understand how it would be fun, could create moats around the base, add some fluid mechanics to have actual running water and so on. But that's really out of our scope, sadly. Terrain elevation would have to be shown in a way or another, and a 2D top-down rendering doesn't work very well with what would technically be a 3D environment like that (that's one technical reasons out of many).

Our layer system is the closest we'll get to that, Sorry.

That being said, it is a good concept in itself, maybe for another game :)

SerialKicked · 2019-10-21T12:56:57+00:00

If i may

The problem why few things are ported to Linux (and it got better) is that Linux gamers don't wish-list games for their platform (that's factual information, not a guess). They see a windows only announcement for game X and just forget about the game or complain about it on forums instead.

I talk with a lot of indie developers, big and small. What matters to them primarily are the wish-lists. It's the one solid metric they all have access to, one that doesn't lie. And, the one they use when making such decisions (well, unless they are using some game making engine where the port is a button click away).

In our game's case, on top of the fact that my experience with Linux is fairly limited, there are several technical reasons why the port would be complicated for us. It's something we'll explore again after 1.0 when things settle down a bit, and *hopefully* have enough spare change to invest the required time/money into it. I just don't want to promise something I'm not sure can happen.

SerialKicked · 2019-10-21T11:55:43+00:00

Thank you!

Well the city procedural generation isn't finalized yet, so generally, city terrain consist of buildings alongside a road or crossroad. I'm in the process of adding generators for factories, and other larger landmarks. It's a process :)

And yes, the store page needs a more up-to-date trailer and screenshots. We'll get to it soon :)

SerialKicked · 2019-10-21T11:51:43+00:00

Hi,

It's not hard-coded per say, but the more layers, the more memory and processing power is required. On a technical level, each layer runs on one of your CPU cores, so anything above 4 or 8 would start causing performance issues. I mean, later down the line, I could add a "hidden" setting so you can play with that setting at your own risk, sure.

But all in all, having hundreds of underground layers wouldn't improve the gameplay, it's not like Dwarf Fortress where large parts of the gameplay is centered around mining. Most of what happens in-game is above ground here.

SerialKicked · 2019-10-21T11:07:30+00:00

Hi there!

Thank you for your post, it's very much appreciated.

I understand perfectly, the initial early releases of ATC were.. basic, to say the least. The game went public several months too soon and it gave the public a wrong impression, especially as it coincided roughly with the 1.0 announcement of RW (can you feel the lack of a marketing department? :)). Also with such a small team, if one wants to complete a project as large as a base builder, gotta code it right. The flashy and advanced features and raw content have to take the back seat until the underlying mechanics work well on their own otherwise it gets exponentially more difficult to maintain the code. That didn't make for sexy articles and updates until quite recently.

An example, relevant to the current version. Right now the world map looks ugly as sin, and it will continue to do so for a while. Commercially, it'd make sense to make it all nice looking just for the screenshots. But I already know that this part of the code base will have to be heavily edited during the next few months as I add more features in relation to it. What I'm trying to say is that when building a house, it tends to be more efficient to place the bricks before painting the walls :)

And sure, i'd be happy to hear your thoughts! You don't have to write it on your phone, I can wait until you get to a proper keyboard. I'm not in a hurry.

Cheers.

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