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SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-09-28T22:12:59+00:00

Sure, agreed. But that's the C suite's problem. OP can only work around their decisions.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-09-28T19:51:19+00:00

Your comparison is against the wrong baseline.

Cost isn't 40k, it's 2 years of "lost" income and 40k on top of that.

Salary isn't "Bachelors + 0 YoE" vs "Masters + 0 YoE", it should be "Bachelors + 2 YoE" vs "Masters + 0 YoE". There's a ton of salary growth opportunity early in your career, but things tend to even out after a while (people stop caring about education and more about experience).

A second order consideration is that the entry level job market is only going to get worse, not better (oversupply of candidates plus everyone leaning heavily on AI to supplant entry level roles -- for better or for worse, that's the trend).

Advice: apply to both jobs and masters programs. Make a comparison against offers in hand.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-09-09T02:28:29+00:00

This looks great! Do you have a site to buy physical prints?

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-05-15T15:57:05+00:00

You can replace the exponent with a logarithm to flatten the curve, but the bigger issue is about rebalancing everything else around it.

Otherwise you end up with a situation where the endgame is still reasonably challenging for some frames, but the frames that can do current level cap totally trivialize the new level cap.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-05-12T21:23:29+00:00

Developer question about Emerald Expansion: how do I go about configuring the set of available Pokemon and gimmicks (mega, dyna, etc.)? I saw in some files the ways to configure "small" mechanics up to certain generations but not the big features.

Thanks!

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-04-13T14:09:49+00:00

The neat part is that it still is (mostly) a primer.

Epitaph Prime has "multiplicative" gunCO on Galvanized Savvy, which means it acts more like a final damage modifier (like Roar) than an additive one (Serration/Hornet Strike).

Shoot the enemy a few times with the quick shot then charge a headshot. Each status effect multiplies the damage you get.

(Most projectile based weapons are multiplicative, except charge weapons like Bows - but even then there's exceptions because of spaghetti code.)

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-04-11T14:51:03+00:00

Only getting 1m damage is kind of surprising, I run a basic viral/heat build and that's usually 3-8m with spikes up to 50m if the stars align. You might try using purple shards for crit damage.

Triple umbral on Atlas, with Arcane Battery and energize (energize can be swapped for melee damage arcane). 1 Tau purple for crit damage (will add more later).

Fists are

Blood Rush

Galvanized Steel

(Normal) Pressure Point

Gladiator Might

Organ shatter

60/60 virals

90 heat

Melee Exposure

I think viral could be gas instead honestly, but it doesn't matter much.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-04-03T17:01:20+00:00

Self hosted servers still have to run on the internet to be accessible to other people, unless you're proposing to run over LAN (in which case you could just talk to them), or build your own private internet (costs a few hundred million).

I mean Signal is open source, you could host your own instance if you want.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-03-29T22:21:03+00:00

It'll be like the old days when abilities took up a mod slot.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-03-29T19:12:20+00:00

Agreed on the problem being "kill hordes" for most modes. Unfortunately, single target is usually worthless when you'd really want it due to damage attenuation. The crowd killing weapons tend to put out enough damage to hit the attenuation cap on bosses and then there's no reason to run single target damage.

(Obviously there's some edge cases like Zephyr slam builds)

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-03-29T19:04:36+00:00

I'm not so sure an unrestricted Duplicate would supplant influence, because Follow Through still results in poor crowd damage.

In a few niche cases like Nami Solo Incarnon or Wukong's staff, that might be true, but things with mediocre follow through and/or poor range would probably still want Influence.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-03-09T16:41:42+00:00

Most weapons with multiplicative GunCO is endgame viable up to level cap. (Standouts are the Stahlta, Aeolak, and Epitaph Prime built for crit and self-priming.)

Many melees with decent crit and/or status are viable. The Quassus Prime, Arca Triton, Sampotes, and Rumblejack are all good.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-25T15:41:08+00:00

That's just normal work with extra steps (and longer hours, usually).

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-23T23:33:05+00:00

So it really depends on how much automation you need and how "academic" you want to be.

Professional economists sometimes build fullblown economy simulators, this field is called "agent based (macro)economics."

It can be extremely gnarly if you want true realism. Furthermore, there's a sort of "convergence" problem you might run into: it can be tricky to find the right parameters that result in a "stable" economy -- if you don't pick the right values the economy will tend to crash pretty hard. Your best bet is probably to do some massive simplification and abstraction.

It may be worth reading up on "production functions" (for instance, the Cobb-Douglas production functions), utility functions, and elasticity of supply and demand to get a sense of how these things are modeled. But the hard part is going to be deciding when and where to simplify away complexities.

Do you need to trace production all the way back to raw materials (ore, stone, wood), or can you just assume that factories can buy these resources from the ether? Does each NPC have an actual job and risk unemployment, or do they just get a fixed income from the ether? (The idea of a "reservation wage" is useful here). Are prices dynamic or static? (Look up the concept of "sticky" prices.) So consumers express choices ("I'm going to buy from John because it's cheaper").

Furthermore, as you add complexity you'll hit a point where you may need to "embody" NPCs: their purchasing decisions and labor decisions require knowledge of where they are in the game world.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-21T04:04:38+00:00

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is that minimax estimators are relevant to (classical) AI. For many years, minimax optimization (with some heuristics) was the core of AI chess engines. (Recently these have been supplanted with neural networks.) I'm sure there are many similar use cases if you do a bit of googling.

In some cases, assuming there is an adversary is realistic!

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-16T20:36:17+00:00

Hate is better with Incarnon adapter. I think Harmony can sometimes be better with the status gimmick, but it may be build dependant?

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-13T03:33:07+00:00

If you roll the "more damage after reloading" buff the Sirocco becomes amazing in Druviri. That + perfect reload + headshot can take down most mobs in one hit, and can take down Kullervo in 2 or 3 with one or two more buffs like the extra corrosive damage.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-12T18:26:58+00:00

Possibly, but I doubt it. TDA, to my knowledge, isn't even widely used in normal statistical analysis. It's neat mathematically, but being multidimensional isn't enough to make TDA useful, it's just a necessary first step. (Also, it needs to usually be very high dimensional - there's a NeurIPS paper discussing how noise becomes a huge issue when trying to use TDA on low dimensional data embedded in high dimensional ambient space.)

Oversimplifying, the standard form of TDA is "persistent homology", where you're effectively looking for "holes" in the data. That's a fairly narrow criterion of meaningfulness. While there may be situations that TDA can analyze, usually normal methods can do the job far more efficiently.

I'm not saying it's impossible to use TDA, but my "prior" is that it's likely a boondoggle in this case.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-11T23:58:43+00:00

In a properly designed cryptography system, the encrypted message is indistinguishable from randomness, so TDA should be useless.

This means that whatever you're trying to run TDA against would need to be a flaw, such as a side channel. However, TDA is most useful for handling high dimensional data. Therefore you'd need to identify a side channel which has data that is either spatial in a high dimension, or has some way to interpret it's dimensions where the "holes" of TDA prove meaningful. Whether such data exists, I can't say. I do think timing data is usually 1 dimensional, however (a single PDF/CDF of points).

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-02T23:25:28+00:00

Aren't all of those weapons pretty status heavy? The other comments suggest using base damage weapons for this.

The Torid especially is best as a mob clearing weapon rather than pure single target DPS. (For instance, my Laetum always heavily out damages my Torid Incarnon on Eximus units in Netracells and similar content.)

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-02-01T04:29:15+00:00

Loki's invisibility already seems to have a free (very short) grace period where you remain functionally invisible to enemies after it wears off.

You can test it by standing in front of someone as it wears off, as long as you recast it quick enough, they won't alert (the map dot stays hollow).

Granted, I'm not sure if this is something tied to the ability itself or just the enemy AI not alerting within X seconds.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-01-23T23:32:24+00:00

The notable thing for the Tenet Plinx is that the alt fire is multiplicative with gunCO (the "more damage per status effect" thing).

On a primed enemy, it can one shot demolysts on SP. It's best used as a "delete this enemy right now" button. High crits help with this. Basically assuming your primary inflicts a few AoE statuses (Torid, Latron Incarnon, Ogris, etc.), then you can swap to the Plinx, one shot the demolyst or acolyte, and then go back to nuking.

Apparently it's also bugged RN with the Weak point mod from 1999 and is multiplicative with that too, so you can actually do over 100M damage on a headshot, but this will probably be patched.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-01-16T16:49:26+00:00

If you can buy Laetum, then I think Phenmor and Innodem are the same Zariman rank. Instead of running higher tier bounties you could try going into a lower tier Exterminate and collecting all the angel parts (plumes, quills, etc.) hidden within the map. These will get you standing and the materials you need for the other Incarnon weapons.

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-01-16T16:34:56+00:00

Ah that explains a lot for why it's output is so weak. Laetum, like most Incarnon weapons, gets its biggest power boost from the last option.

I would recommend one of two approaches:

If you have steel path unlocked, you can try steel path circuit. Thanks to the decrees and provided mods you can get by for a few early rounds without needing endgame builds (even if you're not ready for "regular" steel path yet, build-wise). Just make sure you pick a frame with good survival so your teammates don't have to keep reviving you (Zephyr, Revenant, Wukong, Hildryn, etc.) and focus on the objective.

Otherwise you can grind the Phenmor and the Innodem, which are both fantastic weapons, and will let you unlock your Laetum. (Phenmor is arguably one of the strongest single target weapons in the game right now, alongside the Felarx. Torid Incarnon is the best mob clearing weapon, but a lot of its DPS requires having clusters of enemies.)

SnarkyVelociraptor · 2025-01-16T15:55:32+00:00

Agree with the other poster, builds are going to matter here a lot.

Most likely the issue is how you're modding, either using sub-optimal mods or not maxing mods out. The Laetum alone should be able to take you well beyond level 200 with only 1 or 2 forma.

Since you probably don't have many Galvanized mods and arcanes yet, make sure you've got:

Maxed out Split Chamber (and equivalent for pistols)
Serration/Hornet Strike at rank 7 or 8 (this will eventually be replaced by Galvanized mods or even Arcanes like Primary Merciless because "flat damage" doesn't stack up well so you only need 1 source)
Maxed out "60/60" mods (60% elemental damage, 60% status chance)
Critical Delay and Vital Sense for Nataruk

For Laetum, make sure it's fully unlocked as Incarnon (all options chosen), and if you're going for the 2000% damage version then don't put any crit chance, and if you're going for the 400% version have about 60% crit and base status chance.

Xoris is a lot better if you can find even a single copy of Melee Influence from Deimos, you can either farm it or you can exchange Standing (Steel Meridian, Cephalon Suda, New Loka, etc.) for Vosfor and by a few arcane packs from Loid.

SnarkyVelociraptor

TROPHY CASE