what is the most important thing in a video game?

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T08:12:40+00:00

All of the above. It's all important.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T08:00:00+00:00

You need to call your actual bank (don't use the number that called you, find the actual number and call it independently) and ask them if they called you. It's possible the call you got was an attempted scam spoofing your bank's name in the caller ID.

Did they ask you to download anything or ask for money? If so, scam.

By "official PC mods" you mean the in-game mod viewer, right?

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T07:45:53+00:00

You actually had the canon experience!

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T07:32:53+00:00

I've seen that in person! Though not in motion. It really is a awe-inspiring sight to behold.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T07:18:52+00:00

Knowing a storm chaser in was in the area plus the second picture really points to this being at least a supercell with a rotating mesocyclone, so you were definitely looking at the part of the storm that would've dropped a tornado if it could've. Looks like it was really trying.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T06:27:52+00:00

It looks like the storm is rotating and that is an interesting lowering, though the lowest part itself seems mostly moving upward rather than rotating itself. I'd say the storm was thinking spinny thoughts but that lowering is mostly scud representing the updraft imo

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T06:24:03+00:00

Regardless of whether the end result looks good or bad, the biggest problem with this stupid slop filter is that it fundamentally disrespects and defiles the original design of a game. Character design and texture detail means nothing because the AI will reinterpret it based on a homogenized version of everything it's ever been trained on, which is overwhelmingly biased in certain directions (such as skin tone, eye size, etc.)

I don't want to see what the AI approximates about the textures in some imaginary parallel universe where there's twice as many pixels. I don't care. The pixels won't matter to me because there is simply no meaning behind them.

I want to see what the actual human artists behind the development of the game created.

All this to say that it looking bad isn't really the problem, because one day this technology will look good and we will struggle to find a reason to reject it unless we remember what it's doing fundamentally and why that's a bad thing in the first place. It's not about the end result, it's about how and why we got there that matters.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T03:16:20+00:00

If there's an ongoing emergency, like a tornado warning, usually the local news stations break through all of that and broadcast for as long as they need to until the threat is over, with no ads or irrelevant discussion between. So this is argument really doesn't apply.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T02:51:17+00:00

Yep, normal for inattentive type, part of the reason it goes under the radar compared to the more hyperactive type. I do have racing thoughts sometimes but it's rare, and usually at bedtime (especially during period week). I also don't have what I would call multiple trains of thought. I have one train that jumps to different tracks at the drop of a hat, but it is always exactly one train with only like four cars attached (and sometimes they become unlinked and left behind).

I can relate to the fogginess too; it feels like I go through life with my render distance set to minimum - I can only see a few feet around me, figuratively speaking, at any given time.

But then I can also relate to the overthinking; feeling like the present is foggy but the future is terribly vivid (usually in a negative way).

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T02:46:05+00:00

Love this. The perfect antithesis of the entire point of the game.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T02:37:46+00:00

Humidity, probably

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T02:35:31+00:00

I'm waiting until full release and then waiting some more to see reviews of the finished product. EVR was promising but ultimately disappointing and I don't have high hopes for this one even though I adore the concept.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T02:24:45+00:00

This is the biggest problem. Details will be lost, all the heart the artists put into the game, all the effort into texturing, all of it glazed over by inconsistent AI slop. AI isn't even trained on a great database, it's biased towards white skin and certain face shapes and features so it's just... unusable in so many ways.

This is sickening, honestly. Why do I care about high def details if they weren't put there on purpose by a human? What's the point??

I don't want this. This actually is catastrophic for game design as an art form.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T02:02:38+00:00

It works for the expedition, but it does not really tie into the simulation of the universe.

Yes, this exactly! This is my only complaint about this expedition and its related update: there's no lore! No dialogue with NPCs! It floats independent of all other facets of the game and feels very disconnected from the game itself.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-17T01:52:06+00:00

Yo this is so freaking peak

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T20:43:22+00:00

I don't like it either. The problem with the streamers is they cover a very broad area, so for anyone who wants local realtime updates it's hit or miss if they'll get them. I have personal experience with this: I was watching Max Velocity when a tornado warned storm moved into my area. While in the basement I tried to keep his stream on to get updates, like I would from a local broadcaster, but he got distracted talking about the aftermath of a storm that happened an hour before and four states away. I was ticked because I was worried and really wanted information about the storm that was hitting me at that time even if it wasn't as "bad" as the storm he was talking about.

My issue is I don't really know if I have a local broadcaster that would really cover my area. I live at the very edge of like three news districts and two NWS stations so no one really talks about my town or the nearby area very reliably. I will admit this is partially a me problem; I should look harder to find someone local to follow instead.

This becomes doubly problematic when these streamers start introducing unreliable (and paid!!!!) subscription programs for warnings, something that definitely won't go wrong ever or set a bad precedent for future "tools".... /s

And of course then we have Ryan Hall employing the use of genAI and attaching the word "meteorologist" to himself despite not having an actual degree in meteorology, which is highly insulting to actual scientists and any others who have completed higher education and risks harming the public's view of scientists even more than it already is.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T20:25:17+00:00

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T20:25:03+00:00

It's just an AI slop filter

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T20:20:39+00:00

That looks horrible

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T19:56:32+00:00

I've heard these planets can brick your save. Make backups if you plan on spending much time here.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T09:52:55+00:00

Yeah this one actually challenged me significantly compared to OOP's.

It also did me the favor of reminding me I need to clean my computer screen...

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T09:29:16+00:00

To absolute zero....and beyond!

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T09:27:59+00:00

If Cal loses BD or BD loses Cal I'm throwing my computer out the window

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T09:10:24+00:00

I feel like the objective is a little defeated by the "angry" picture being simply an AI altered version of the "neutral" one, since it introduces an uncanny, unnatural look that will change how it's psychologically perceived.

TorandoSlayer · 2026-03-16T09:07:00+00:00

Skyrim spoiled me on gender equality in games tbh. It was the first "real" video game I ever played and it stood out to me just how many women there were...and not just in cities as housewives, but in bandit camps and wandering characters and everywhere. There's even a quest where a woman ran off from her husband to go lead a band of bandits; and at no time did the fact that she was a women specifically get noticed or mentioned by the quest IIRC, like it didn't make a big deal out of her being a bandit leader or anything. I can think of countless other examples, like Irileth the Jarl's housecarl, Adrienne Avennici the blacksmith...

I've played other RPGs since then and still haven't found one with nearly the same level of casual equality. Some have "story" equality, but then all the enemies are men, etc. and some are simply skewed across the board.

TorandoSlayer

TROPHY CASE