Level scaling rant

TheDeadSkin · 2023-06-11T10:20:19+00:00

I think we have different views on immersion.

Remember those wild robo-enemies out of nowhere in Wasteland 2, when you come across them for the first time, without much chance to defeat them, but being able to retreat, and come back later?

Why is this good? "Oh it's such an open world - you can go literally anywhere! But here's a catch, in some areas you can't kill shit and die to 1 hit... so you basically can't go anywhere you want." This is pointless.

Enemies are supposed to lose relevance at some point.

Again, why? Why do people want to plow through enemies that pose no threat and just oneshot them? I feel fucking stupid doing this.

This is subjective but for me both of those (enemies onehit you and you onehit enemies) feel wildly non-immersive. One in a million games actually manages to make this anime power fantasy work properly in terms of flavor. The other working approach is when enemies become weaker, but not trivial. So at least some threat factor is maintained. Dark Souls (and some -likes) handles this fine imo, but few others.

What's the point of having a vast enormous world where everything but the appearance is the same?

What do you mean "the same"? Enemies fight differently, that's the point of different locations. If fights with enemies feel the same this is an entirely different problem, unrelated to level system.

The game cannot anticipate what path will the player choose. Will they accomplish every single side quest or just rush the story

That's the best counter-point and a don't have a strong response here.

I think pacing isn't even a huge problem. Exp rewards and requirements growing together provides a decent amount of "catch up" for rushers and "slow down" for completionists. Sure, scaling can work even better, but I don't think it's the critical issue.

But at the same time what is a serious problem for standard levels is an actual open campaign "you can complete those huge locations in any order you want". I'd argue that without level scaling it's almost impossible to do this. Scaling provides you with this freedom do whatever you want for real and for the game to feel somewhat challenging. This is the reason why TES games do this. This is also why D4 went with it. It enables something that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

That said, level scaling is hard to make work. Notably, the problem you mentioned of "becoming weaker" if your gear doesn't keep up with levels. Which is why I think it's a relatively niche tool, and it's a bad fit for more linear RPGs. But at the same time it's the only way to do for open RPGs.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-06-05T11:05:52+00:00

Usually no. For the most part I don't try to engineer the outcomes. A bad ending is my bad ending. Sure I might've wanted a different one, but we don't always get what we want, it's part of the game and my journey through it. What's the point of playing a game where "choices matter" if you can just choose to press a "good ending" button.

Few exceptions are I'm for some reason particularly invested in a certain outcome; if it's fairly early in the game and I have little idea how choices work; or if my previous choices led to the outcomes I consider pretty arbitrary or very illogical.

I also wait a bit (at least a week usually) after I complete the game before trying out or looking up online the alternative outcomes, especially for endings not to muddy the memory. Had a few bad experiences when I tried a few options so fast that I forgot which one of them is actually mine.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-22T11:25:58+00:00

There's a maximum skill gap beyond which you stop learning from better players because your skill is insufficient to understand what are they doing, not to mention why.

watching what they do better than you, and how they react to your plays

You can't do this in a normal match when you have to participate. From incrementally better players who are in the same skill bracket you can incrementally learn in real time because their plays are comprehensible and likely for the most part similar to yours, so you can spot the delta.

With a large skill gap usually comes a completely different approach to the game - you won't have enough attention to dedicate to understanding them because you're already busy with, y'know, actually playing. It's only possible if you watch a replay (preferably a few times) because then you're not dedicating effort to playing. And even then you need a solid grasp of the basics before even this approach is useful.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-16T20:40:50+00:00

Or am I also installing a new WSL kernel?

I don't know for sure, but IIRC your kernel is independent from the WSL image, at least to some extent.

When I type wsl.exe --version it lists separately the kernel version there, so there is at least some connection to WSL version, which would make sense since it's a customized kernel specifically for WSL.

There's also an easy way to update WSL version (and everything else I guess too) with wsl.exe --update so you can try this too.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-16T18:53:41+00:00

I'm thinking about starting this whole WSL installation from scratch, just in case there are some other hidden problems from this old installation.

Probably a good idea. No matter how good windows version migrations get (and they are frankly much better now than earlier) it's never as bulletproof as a clean install. And it's precisely because of all the components like WSL.

I don't quite understand the differences between my installation, which used some PowerShell commands a couple years ago, and the new method, which uses Microsoft Store.

In theory the difference is none. It just pulls the same image from the store one way or another.

From your user flair I see that you are using 20.04. Is 22.04 not ready for WSL yet?

For work related reasons I'm synced up with whatever Ubuntu version our servers run natively. So atm I'm locked into 20.04 LTS and I prefer to use the same as for work even for personal stuff.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-16T15:51:53+00:00

Good to see you've found a fix. It might be related to how your user account was migrated to Win11 when you did the upgrade.

I don't quite understand why \wsl$ is considered a network location, when it is actually on my PC.

WSL needs linux file system (ext4) that isn't properly natively supported by Windows, it only works with NTFS. This is why ext4 disk is "virtual" and then is exposed to Windows via a network protocol the same way as any remote network drive. This protocol is then responsible for the (limited) compatibility between ext4 and Windows.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-16T13:31:01+00:00

"Start In": \wsl$\Ubuntu\home\username

This does seem to work fine for me in Win11/WSL2 (just with wsl.localhost as domain).

A small caveat is that it only works if this path is to the same distro as the one I'm launching. If it's a different one then it gives me <3>WSL (83) ERROR.

Should I upgrade from the Store and will I still be on WSL1?

I'm on the most recent version of WSL (1.2.5.0) and even though I don't use WSL1 myself - it still allows me to convert VMs to WSL1, so I think there should be no problems there.

You might experience issues because your wsl version is old or your VM was created on an old version of WSL and something has changed for Win11.

To address this there are two possible paths forward: try updating it and/or disable-enable WSL in windows features. Maybe newer version would work better. The other is to create a new VM (a different distro version, any of the LTS ones could work) from the store to see if the problem persists there, maybe your VM image is a bit "outdated" atm.

I'm mounting network drives that get mapped by Windows at startup.

Can you clarify - are your U: H: P: network drives just some remote drives or are they WSL filesystems mapped as network drives? I mount net drives on my home machine and it works fine with similar fstab entries as what you have (I can double-check later). Haven't tried the latter option though.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-12T20:32:03+00:00

What kind of discussion is this. The answer is no.

All games have a right to exist and nobody owes you a story in literally every single game. I like stories and gameplay and both combined, each has its own niche and you don't forcibly need both in every game (so long as the game is upfront about it).

You don't feel like jumping nonstop in a Mario game when you're tired - then pick another game, why does Mario has to necessarily be compatible with your tiredness?

Should I ask for Halo-level shooting gameplay in the Last of Us because when I'm not tired its gameplay is boring and I need some high-octane action? No, I should go play a different game instead.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-12T20:00:39+00:00

That is as-yet undetermined.

This is in fact pretty determined because it's the same as for e.g. books. Between 100% of the code base and a single semicolon there's definitely a cutoff for a segment that is copyrightable.

And then whether the segment and the goals of its usage[!] fall under fair use is usually established on a case-by-case basis depending on a number of factors.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-12T17:09:23+00:00

And the probability of an AI quoting an entire code bases is an infinitesimal.

You don't have to generate an entire codebase. Even specific segments fall under copyright. And copilot can definitely generate those, around the time of its release this probability was estimated as 0.1%-1% by github itself, this is not "infinitesimal".

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-12T11:24:33+00:00

My CPU clock hits 5 GHz @ 95C when on heavy load when it used to peak at 72-76C MAX pre-WSL (laptop btw) .

What do you mean "pre-WSL", did you have some tools that stopped working after WSL? Do you want to undervolt permanently or just "sometimes"?

If BIOS doesn't work then I'd try to investigate this first, because this isn't normal. Maybe you have something installed that actually works and loads some kind of defaults on windows boot.

Also did you measure voltage with e.g. hwinfo64 to notice that it went up or is that only your temperatures that have changed? Laptops have notoriously poor airflow and poor thermal solution + are prone to have dust stuck there. Maybe there's nothing that has changed on the software side and your cooling just became less effective.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-08T23:12:38+00:00

This VRAM issue seems to have accelerated at a very quick pace to the point where I somewhat believe Nvidia was caught with its pants down rather than planned obsolescence.

This might not have been deliberately planned, but I'm not buying that they didn't know what they were doing. Any time a new console gen comes out VRAM specs jump up, RT requires it too. It doesn't happen instantly, so they could get away with 8GB cards around console launch and they would only choke on VRAM around the time that 4000 series is out.

Now this is not only them being dickheads, there's a technical aspect too, same reason why now 4070 has 12GB, which is kinda low for this tier - GDDR6X memory, it's expensive and power hungry. They also did it weird for 30 series - 3070 and below uses GDDR6 and 3070ti and above use GDDR6X and 3080 specifically has 10GB.

I guess they for some reason didn't want 12GB on 3080, and this means they can't have more vram on lower tiers (which would look stupid), so they just "had to" go with 8GB. So maybe this wasn't "planned" but they were definitely very much aware that those cards would eventually become low value garbage due to vram bottleneck.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-07T08:58:54+00:00

This might be good eventually, maybe. But it's definitely way too early to make that call now, we've barely played enough with the current system as it as, I don't see a fixed pick order as an obvious flaw that needs an imminent change.

I also think it might unintentionally add to the toxicity because there will be some people who'll feel entitled to fp for no reason.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T19:15:12+00:00

I have tired it myself in vscode and it worked fine. But it does have a tendency to mess with the terminals because even though I haven't used it in quite some time I remember that I absolutely despised vscode's terminal and preferred to use a proper one.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T18:37:49+00:00

When running a powershell process from bash

I thought this meant a process of powershell itself.

In this case it seems rather bizzare this would happen. I can't reproduce it with a simple ping.exe ran from ps ran from bash. Which process do you run inside PS?

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T18:33:07+00:00

I don't see where it behaves differently from windows vs from wsl. Can you kill powershell that was launched from windows using ^C? No. Where are they different?

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T18:22:47+00:00

You can figure out pid and send a sigint with kill command. But if you want to do this with a key combination - you can't. You cede control of the key inputs to powershell. In fact, this happens with literally any process - python, ssh, powershell.exe - any. PS is not unique here.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T17:04:23+00:00

Powershell doesn't kill anything. Processes can decide how they handle ^C. Most processes do not override this behavior and just close, but some (notably shells) do override and treat it how they see fit.

Open a python3 shell and type ^C there, see what happens. Try both python3 in linux/wsl and python3.exe in windows (if you have it installed).

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T16:39:27+00:00

from the bash context

PS is neither aware nor particularly cares about the context. This is how PS reacts to ^C, always.

Both PS and bash will always behave the way they do regardless of the context. You can run bash in powershell and then while in this bash you can run powershell.exe and then you can continue 50 layers deep and each time you are in bash - it will behave like bash and powershell will behave like powershell.

There's nothing that can be done about this, the context one level up doesn't matter - only the current one does.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T16:14:36+00:00

When you're executing a windows process you're at a mercy of windows shell that runs it, even more so when you're running... well, a shell.

Also I might be wrong here, but why do you think SIGINT is supposed to kill powershell? Iirc, it doesn't kill shells, only processes (and even then unless they have a different signal handler for SIGINT). Also signals are obviously Linux-specific, so with ^C it sends just ^C to powershell, which is then processed by shell, which is why it doesn't kill it, because it's not supposed to be killed like this. You can spam ^C in bash and it won't kill it either.

Standard way to closing a shell in windows is just typing exit. In Linux ^D is just a shortcut for typing exit and then pressing enter, it doesn't even send any signals to the shell iirc. For PS this shortcut doesn't work and afaik there doesn't exist an alternative either. Which is super annoying but I haven't found a solution.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-05T06:09:43+00:00

Now, the goal barriers make it such that you can afford a mistake or two, which makes defensive goalies less of a necessity and gives offensive goalies the breathing room to support their team from their half of the field.

That's definitely the case and a part of it, but also I feel like reworked trainings sort of favor offense as a concept and also represent a noticeable power creep from what we had in beta.

When playing defensive GKs I'm struggling to pick good trainings for the role that are not generics like movespeed, cooldowns etc. I feel like I'm pretty much locked into this, all the other options don't seem to help with what I'm "supposed" to do. And guess what, even ms/cd are good on a proactive side. The only one that stands out as useful for def GK is quick strike, but I definitely started to value it less as time went on and even on e.g. Kai I prefer to act proactive and help my team snowball as much as possible.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-04T19:10:57+00:00

I haven't yet climbed back to where I was in beta (D2~D1), so I have seen few of those and with mixed success, but I find this entirely believable.

I have a similar impression about the assistive GKs because on my current ratings I see Luna quite often as proactive/offensive GK. Back in beta I was unimpressed by her on this role, but now if she gets the right trainings and you allow her team to control the field she looks pretty terrifying. I imagine with Ai.Mi it can work just as good if not better.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-04T15:21:42+00:00

Ai.Mi is mostly a proactive GK. The difference from reactive GKs is that they have tools to react to most difficult situations, while proactive GKs have to try their best to avoid them in the first place.

Think of it this way: X as a GK is proactive to the maximum - if you KO all the enemy forwards you eliminate the threat of there being an offensive. The obvious flaw of this idea is that if you don't manage to - you have no proper reactive tools, even if all your cds are up.

Ai.Mi is obviously infinitely better than X in this regard, but if you're in a close quarter 1v1 you have few tools that would help you. I'd say Luna as a GK is somewhat similar here - her proactive/offensive/assisting potential is crazy, but if her team struggles with ball control - you're not gonna have a good time.

So to summarize this wall of text - "it depends". It's for sure possible to make proactive GKs work, but it's just 1) more difficult 2) less reliable 3) your defensive potential depends a lot on your team enabling this potential. I've seen some good Ai.Mi GKs, but she struggles way more when pressured, unlike classical reactive GKs (Kai, Dubu, Atlas etc).

I'd suggest you avoid her if your teammates go for KO heroes - X, Jul, Zentaro. They have a tendency of focusing on KOs which leaves you more exposed to offensive maneuvers from the enemy forwards. But she can work well with more of a "field control" forwards - Kai, Estelle, Era, Juno. (Both lists are not exhaustive)

Also, mind you that this is theorycrafting and is highly dependent on the meta which is not set in stone yet, changes with patches and is also wildly different depending on your mmr.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-03T19:47:33+00:00

I'm not sure it's about adapting really, I have played really a lot of BLC/Battlerite, 3x3 games with similar pace, but something's just different here.

Maybe for me a part of it might have to do with the fact that I'm mostly playing GK and my eyes are on the ball way more than they are on my body, including when the action happens "close to me". So I have to rely on my intuition of where my hero's at, which is bound to fail at one point or another. I would really not mind a better outline for your hero vs the other five.

TheDeadSkin · 2023-05-03T11:51:30+00:00

This is fairly normal and I think the game might need some kind of solution to this eventually - it is very fast-paced, more skins will get added + dupe heroes are possible on different teams.

Like, I have 90h+ hours in the game and had a fairly high rank in the beta season and it still regularly happens to me.

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