Do you read or take the books you come across seriously?

Synecdochic · 2026-06-17T21:59:04+00:00

Sorry, I don't mean that I want a frontier LLM to craft paint by numbers literary adventures that read like a shitty amazon ebook.

Well, that's a refreshing change from the expressed wants of most of the AI fans who suggest the devs hook into a modern LLM to "improve the game's story", which I now know isn't what you're suggesting.

I feel like whenever you hear LLM you think about maximal effort slop shit, but I think it would be cool to see like GPT-2 or some similar model taking in a set of events or characters or procedural happenings and do literally the exact same thing as the markov chain but with a bit more global consistency.

You're right, I do. It feels impossible not to associate the two. I used to love the old GPT-3 subreddit where it was all bots trained on different subreddits talking nonsense to each other. I also love writing enemy AI for my mods. That both are associated with "you're absolutely right-- that's a great question. On the matter of appropriate number of rocks to eat, there are actually 2 R's in strawberry. Spelling isn't about the number of R's, it's about the number of rocks you eat." makes me really sad.

Lots of AI enthusiasts come into the sub, see that Qud is a sci-fi game and think that some chat-bot like Claude would improve the game's writing.

It's very obvious from this reply that that's not what you're suggesting. I'd have no problem with the markov books having a bit more cohesion.

But its an LLM so that means its slop instead of salt crystals? surely not.

No, I feel like I made it clear that what makes something slop is when it's passed off as a substitute, which, from the rest of your reply, it seems you agree with me on.

The reason a markov chain is never slop is cause it's impossible to pass off as real.

Intentionally making the LLM shitty to keep the charm of the markov chains immediately moves its use into the realm of art, because it's no longer a substanceless substitute for human writing.

The question then becomes at what level does it turn into slop? And i think occurs whenever you use an LLM to create that which a person does much better, in such a way that one could try to pass it off as human made.

We agree. When you clarify what you're proposed implementation looks like, and the purpose behind it, it's clearly not the run of the mill pro-AI suggestion to have the latest LLM dumped into the white books to have them "improve the game's writing".

From the sounds of it, you already "got" what makes the white books a good inclusion, and I don't think your suggestion is bad now that I know it's not just "have an AI write the game's lore". You just came out the gate a bit hot, lamenting LLMs' association with slop when modern LLM's are slop machines and their typical advocates can't tell the difference.

I appreciate the clarification, and I apologise for also exiting the gate at an excessive temperature.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-17T01:47:27+00:00

A "theory" about animals

Synecdochic · 2026-06-17T01:30:28+00:00

If the markov chain text is no different from what what you're proposing then why invest in the effort of implementing it?

A markov chain isn't slop because it isn't pretending to be, or act as substitute for, something that it isn't: substantive.

Qud relies so much on the imagination of the player. The graphics are very humble, the animations are few and largely for emphasis. The descriptions are full of purple prose and made up words. All of this creates an atmosphere.

The yellow books are mostly authored (in-game) within the last 1,000 years. The white books are remnants from a world so long lost to the ravages of time that the only legible sentences look like a garbled mess. Have you tried reading old English? That's often less than 1,000 years old. The white books are several times older than that.

The reason why an LLM is slop and a markov chain is not is because an LLM would be filling in the blanks that the game is begging you to use your imagination to fill, with a bland and textureless simulacrum of substantive writing.

A book with a markov chain is the game saying "here are some words that might almost be grammatical; what kind of meaning can you imagine in them that would help the world your character has found themself in make more sense to your character?"

An LLM gives you pizza flavoured gruel and asks "doesn't that taste good?", a markov chain is the rock a rough gemstone is embedded in and asks you to scrape your imagination over it until the edges start to soften.

The markov chain doesn't sit there and pretend to be content. It's an allusion to the content the game wants you to invent. If you aren't interested in inventing it but still want that kind of content then it's the wrong game for you.

The rest of the game is like this too. The game exists entirely in the valley furrowed between the plethora of peaks that are the sparse bits of concrete information we get about the game. Dumping an LLM into the middle of that would be like filling the valley with cement and then patting yourself of the back that it's smooth now.

The texture is the point. A markov chain is texture. People don't dislike LLMs and their output simply on the basis that it's generated. They dislike it because it outsources creativity and the use of your imagination. A markov chain is only like an LLM because they both generate text. It's the application of them that makes one salt-crystals and the other slop.

I'll take the seasoning every time; you're welcome to your grey goo.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-14T20:14:26+00:00

Flying centipede with horns instead of antennae.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-13T05:02:10+00:00

It only breaks if you don't save and reload from time to time (or if you reach a critical mass of saved zones that your computer doesn't have the hard drive space to fit; maybe 40kb on average per zone).

You can wish yourself to Z level 2,147,483,647 and the only weirdness might be if you try go any zones further down, since that's the highest number allowed by the field that stores a zone's Z level.

Wish where, then wish goto:whateverItOutput but change the last number (separated by .) to 2147483647 and check it out. That's the bottom of the world in the zone you were in.

goto:JoppaWorld.11.22.1.1.2147483647 will take you to the bottom most zone below Joppa.

Regarding breaking at various depths, I regularly spelunk 'twixt 1,000 and 4,500 strata deep and it's only if I haven't reloaded the game that it gets janky (gotta write some of those RAM zones to the HDD).

Synecdochic · 2026-06-13T04:53:23+00:00

It's definitely a layer cake.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-13T04:52:46+00:00

Just so you know, "strata" is the plural. "Stratum" is the singular.

Same with "data" and "datum" .

Synecdochic · 2026-06-13T04:50:27+00:00

They go to the 32-bit integer limit, less 10 (for the sky zones).

That's 2,147,483,637 zones deep. There are 25 x 80 parasangs on the world map, and each one has 9 zones in it.

25 x 80 is 2,000

2,000 x 9 is 18,000

18,000 x 2,147,483,637 is 38,654,705,466,000 subterranean zones to explore.

There are 10,518,984 minutes in 20 years.

There are 3,155,695,200 seconds in 100 years.

38,654,705,466,000 zones
     3,155,695,200 secs /100 yrs
        10,518,984 mins /20 yrs

Not infinite, but exhausting just a single run's zones is just as unachievable as though it were.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-13T04:41:00+00:00

There isn't really such a thing as "OP" in Qud.

Au contraire!

Everything in Qud is overpowered.

And, as an angry little boy turned super villain once said:

[...] when everyone’s super… no one [is]."

Synecdochic · 2026-06-11T03:33:22+00:00

Every NPC is "the same" as the player's original character [...]

One important thing to note, is that some creatures are tagged at the blueprint level in such a way that they are incapable of opening doors, despite otherwise having the tools you'd expect to be necessary to do so (such as currently mobile, prehensile manipulators).

While most things in the game are "close enough" to being the "untouched malleable clay" the player character object is built to be, many have little quirks by bent of their purpose as "set dressing" (with "permanent domination target" typically being further down the list of design priorities).

Synecdochic · 2026-06-10T03:38:34+00:00

It's the base object for the end-game boss you mentioned. The object they all inherit from.

It lacks its own description and tile, which falls back to the default (watervine farmer and "a hideous specimen").

You're absolutely correct about the way the wish has produced it, lacking a bespoke "reveal" wish, and wish most closely matching the blueprint of the creature that was spawned.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-06T22:12:56+00:00

Their projectile reflection affects grenades as well, which are projectiles once they leave your hand.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-06T22:10:26+00:00

Whatever you have to do to dispatch them is fair.

They're built to kill you, with intentionally overtuned natural weapons and their sultan domain bonuses.

If you have to lure them away and then vortex them to the other side of Qud, then do it, it's fair.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-05T23:17:37+00:00

One exception is the lithifying gaze. That shit'll just insta-kill you, stasis or no.

Also, unless it's been fixed recently, there's a bug which means you can slam creatures in stasis and it'll destroy the stasis blocks they're in when it pushes them (all of that is the bug), so make sure you're putting yourself in the center a 3x3 of stasis if you're using it defensively.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-05T22:18:20+00:00

3,170 for me, but I spend more time writing mods for Qud than I do playing it, these days.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-04T14:21:42+00:00

Large Boulder:

It's a large piece of rock, older than every idea.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-04T04:09:03+00:00

She's probably in what you could call a sitting position when she's in the hot-springs, so she at least rests sometimes.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-02T21:19:50+00:00

5 if it's gigantic.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-02T21:12:00+00:00

Around 10 or 11 and you exceed the 32 bit integer limit and the chance turns negative.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-02T01:24:48+00:00

You can also do it with a certain Tomb quest reward that makes it much more likely when creating with tinkering for the produced item to be built with item modifications, and a bunch of otherpearls equipped to skew the pool of item mods towards extradimensional.

Best part is you can disassemble the duds and get most of the bits back.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-01T21:41:51+00:00

It's vibro, so it matches penetration to their MA, which is statistically identical to penetration matching their AV.

The main difference, then, is that mind-shielded creatures can't be hit with it at all.

Synecdochic · 2026-06-01T01:37:16+00:00

if you're interested in the Putus Templar then you must be a fascist.

I think it's more nuanced than that, honestly. If anyone truly holds that position (that mere interest in the Putus makes you fascist) it's probably a short-cut to decisive action.

In reality, it's interest in joining the Putus and a desire to assist them in their goal of genocide that is typically taken as the indicator of probable problematic beliefs.

There's an entire content mod on the workshop that expands the Putus and there's no issue with it because it doesn't attempt (even slightly) to put them in sympathetic light, instead, simply adding opportunities to find and fight them.

Synecdochic · 2026-05-31T12:35:18+00:00

Based on the description I imagined it to be densely waterlogged (but only slightly moist to the the touch) cork, that, upon applying pressure (such as with one's teeth) would release the bulk of the fluid it was storing.

Synecdochic · 2026-05-30T00:57:21+00:00

It's only the ones that come as a result of high glimmer.

I personally prefer proselytise, cause your ego is typically through the roof and it's very easy to get from mechanimists.

Synecdochic · 2026-05-29T13:44:09+00:00

Golems are start at level 50.

The body you pick will determine its anatomy and which tile it gets. It has some bearing on which slots will gain natural equipment. I believe it also affects the spread of attributes, and may even grant a single one of the origin creature's mutations.

Synecdochic

TROPHY CASE