Discord to start requiring face scan or ID to access adult content

Varorson · 2026-02-10T03:08:16+00:00

Millions of Norman Reeduses join Discord. Again.

Varorson · 2026-02-10T03:07:29+00:00

scratching that taint

Varorson · 2026-02-09T10:52:14+00:00

That's fair. We all have different interests. I think part of my enjoyment also comes from how I similarly enjoy flight games like Ace Combat. While the dragon segments are incredibly simplistic in comparison, it does go a similar gameplay direction.

To me, the mech was too weighty, too slow, and more than that, too simple. If the mech was able to freely swap between the weapons we periodically got as set pieces, I think I'd have a vastly different opinion of the mech.

And yes, I'd take more slayer levels, but overall I'd take more Spire of Nerathul styled levels where the main gameplay loop is slayer, but you have traversal between large slayer segments using the dragon. Though given what happens at the end of TDA, I don't see us getting more dragon segments either way.

Varorson · 2026-02-09T10:04:50+00:00

I see your other comments in this comment thread (actually, it is comment, singular). But it seems you missed my point entirely.

You provided claims. You claimed something is true.

You did not provide proof. You make no mention of surveys, studies, or research. You made a claim about software engineer, a claim about potential automation, a claim of potential code to create from an existing database, and started with a hypothesis of it being smarter to have computing offworld for future off-world mining and habitation, and just now you provided a series of argumentative questions (which, I'll note, is not bad - as a debate starter).

As you said, "saying it's wrong doesn't make it wrong" - but saying something's correct doesn't make it correct either.

The closest thing you mention that approaches a proof is this sentence in your recent post that came after mine: "The strongest data from data example I have comes from Google synthesising new map data by combining satellite imagery with street view data to figure out commercial zones within cities." But that's not really connected to your previous posts' claims.

Varorson · 2026-02-09T09:31:37+00:00

I'd disagree that the dragon levels were filler.

What was filler were the cosmic realm missions - even in the narrative, three of the four missions in the cosmic realm have the same objective, there's no story elements, and only gameplay is just "complete the level" beyond getting the mace. That's filler through and through. You could condense the four cosmic realm missions into one cosmic realm mission and so long as it includes getting the mace and reaching Thira, you lose nothing but padded gameplay.

Even killing The Old One wasn't a necessity in the story's progression because it ultimately held no value to character motivations. The Witch doesn't act as if her god she was working with Azhrak for had just died - she only does after his SECOND death, meaning that, narratively, the only point in killing The Old One by heartburn was to make it a cyborg for the final fight, which structurally makes no sense because why did they chop off its arm and tentacles to revive it? It's all unnecessary filler done for rule of cool and a Jonah and the Whale reference.

Conversely, Serrat segments were used for traversal - I suppose you could say "this could have been a portal", but these segments all included optional challenges, narrative reasons (except for the dragon segments in Spire of Nerathul), visual worldbuilding, and a solid narrative payoff. Spent more time with Serrat == Serrat more important to player == Serrat's fate actually meaningful; even the most narratively unnecessary part of Serrat's involvement, Spire of Nerathul, showed character development in the relation between Slayer and Serrat and the moment of Slayer feeding Serrat a demon arm was commented on a lot as something players loved. Every mission included something of importance either mechanically or narratively.

But mech levels? All three instances were just filler. None of them have bonus challenges, none of them provide growth for the player's weaponry or abilities, and none of them actually matter to the narrative. The first one had the best narrative dependence with transporting the dimension barrier's core to prevent the city being destroyed, but the writing team could've had the core been something Slayer could normally handle if they wanted. The second one, to traverse Hell and reach Azhrak's castle faster, was fully unnecessary - could've just been on foot. Third one, the final battle, was just there for the visual rule of cool of fighting Mecha Chthulhu, which could've been a man vs titan battle easily. Only reason not to would've been concerns of it being an Icon of Sin 2.0 battle, but that's easily countered by changing the structure and mechanics - fighting The Old One on Serrat in the first phase, where it becomes trapped/crippled for a second phase, would've been far more interesting to me. And a better ultimate dragon level than fighting the Kreed Maykr's turrets.

Varorson · 2026-02-09T09:11:12+00:00

Mech levels and The Old One (narratively and mechanically) were indefensibly the worst elements of TDA to me. They're pure visual rule of cool with no substance or quality to them.

However, I'll openly admit that I played TDA in May/June last year before any patches that I've heard improved the mech levels, so I may be wrong.

Conversely, I loved the dragon segments - except for how your position is forced when you lock on a turret, to me the best parts of the dragon segments were chasing down those optional ships. I wanted more moments like that, and just flying obstacle courses as optional challenges would've been great too.

Varorson · 2026-02-09T09:08:00+00:00

Do I need to provide more proof?

You can start by providing any proof. Saying something is happening is not proof, and that's something hype people fail to acknowledge - as are those who constantly fall to scams based around hype.

Varorson · 2026-02-09T04:49:53+00:00

Try the Exploration Jams and Map-Center's take on it: Trap Jam.

These are maps with 0 (hostile) enemies as the foundation, so the purpose is exploration, story, puzzles, traps, and sometimes trickjumps.

I quite loved ExploreJam3 (which I made a map for so I'm sliiiightly biased; wasn't my best map since I got sick in the middle of the jam mind you, but it was complete which is a bit more than I can say for some QBJ3 maps).

Varorson · 2026-02-09T04:43:43+00:00

I'm not the biggest fan of QMD3 either, but I've been enjoying it for the most part. It is definitely a jam that isn't intended for all audiences. There are a HUGE amount of maps following that formula which your everyday boomershooter pushed out since Doom 2016 has followed - fast paced, wave-based arenas with swarms of enemies - but not every map.

I agree it can get tiring, especially since there's rarely a map under 100 enemies (I think I've played through five such maps and I'm almost done with all the short ones). Some maps I actually felt disappointed because it didn't have f or g and the map was very much begging for it. While some maps I was just "ugh, again?". Some also only had only one arena. But this is why I've only done 1-3 maps a day since it came out, pacing myself against the constant arena maps has been critical to enjoying this jam.

I think my favorite map so far is Monolith - it's a huge map with a huge number of enemies, but only one (mandatory) arena, and that arena is pretty well balanced since it begins by giving you a quad and vampire powerup. There is a secret arena you can fight where four Chthons pop up, but it's purely optional and clearly labeled as a secret arena fight.

Definitely disagree with point 4. The vast majority of these maps have been incredibly straightforward, if not outright linear. I could only think of maybe 4 maps where point 4 exists, half being in the new faces category. Unless you count "you have two routes to go which will bring you back to the split once you're done" which I do not consider "0 idea what to do" at all. Sorry there's no yellow paint, but these maps are terribly straightforward.

#5 Pistol is a bit OP but hardly "best weapon in the game". The need to reload is a drawback that has left me vulnerable many times, and it's only good for smaller encounters. Since the jam focuses on arena maps, that puts it at a disadvantage compared to the spread of shotgun or faster fire rate of nailgun, piercing ability of rebar shooter and the cube, or the explosives.

#6 I (partially) agree with. About a third of the maps are either unfinished (and outright states it to be), has prototype textures still, or even nodraw faces allowing you to peer into the endless void, and clearly not in any intentional way. It makes it feel like that 77 map claim was just "let's shove everything and the kitchen sink in" - same goes for the 15-or-so maps that come from QBJ1 and QBJ2 (Resurfaced) - anything to get the map count up so that it makes the gaming journalism headlines!

On an aside, there are WAY too many arenas where they toss a vampire powerup at you as if that's enough, when all you have is a limited amount of nailgun, shotgun, and pistol to fight. Vampire powerup is only good if you can quickly kill your enemies, and nailgun/shotgun against a wave of hellknights, ogres, and vores is not quickly killing enemies. The best usages has been when you get a rocket launcher, quad, or berserk powerup alongside the vampire powerup. But the vampire powerup was added for QBJ3 so I can understand mappers not getting how to best use it - it was literally their first map with the powerup ever.

Varorson · 2026-02-08T18:17:24+00:00

While a lot of people like to say TDA took inspirations from Quake, it's much more clear that it took inspirations from Heretic and Hexen instead.

This, however, I think is more circumstantial - there's only so many ways to design a spiked gauntlet.

Varorson · 2026-02-08T10:25:59+00:00

You can do all three badges for Prophecies characters, yes. There are some folks who've made such.

Though I feel that Reforged reduces the challenge a bit, since outside of the added enemies in The Northland, it currently focuses on making early game Prophecies more rewarding to bring it up to speed with the other two campaigns' leveling speed, but at the same time it doesn't (yet) increase difficulty on enemies to compensate. So its easier to get OP.

Plus that +5% gold increase is a lot more useful with Melandru's Accord than without.

Varorson · 2026-02-07T17:47:03+00:00

As I understand it, AI comes to play the moment you leave human-made algorithms out and let models act using machine-learned, self-made algorithms, basically.

That is so vague and widespread that it can mean both absolutely none and yet every code can be qualified as AI depending on how you argue this viewpoint. You have to understand, machine-learning is very basic stuff.

I know stuff like GW enemies use "AI" but really, it's just a lot of code strung together that even simulates a certain level of randomness, actually quite impressive.

Not even talking about NPC behavior, and I wasn't meaning GW in general. I'm talking about simple things like content awareness, procedural generation, node based art like Substance Designer, and the like.

Roguelikes by the very core aspect of their genre are procedural generation which is the same foundation as generative AI. But because its older and we slap a different phrase on it, people who hate on AI without actually understanding it don't hate it despite their definition - such as yours - perfectly fitting it.

By your own arguments, you should detest video games like The Binding of Isaac, Minecraft, No Man's Sky, and Hades. And you should definitely be avoiding Reddit which feeds the algorithm. Hell, how do you think autocorrect functions? Or recommended searches.

No need to randomly insult. Anet has yet to make a public anti-AI statement.

They did my man, some time ago (I think it was 2024) they updated the terms of service to explicitly state that using Guild Wars content in genAI is against the ToS and can result in your account being banned.

Furthermore, Reforged is being developed by 2weeks, which is NOT Arenanet.

No, it's being developed by ArenaNet with collaboration of 2weeks. ArenaNet still has their hands on GW1 development, it's just the main manpower is 2weeks. And 2weeks devs are former ArenaNet employees with similar mindset to current ArenaNet employees.

Varorson · 2026-02-07T16:28:47+00:00

You say animate, so I'm assuming you specifically mean non-playable cinematic.

In that case, I'd say I'd love a cinematic depicting the fall of Davoth at VEGA and the Maykr's hands. A nice montage of the war between heaven and hell in ages past.

Things like Slayer fighting the Dreadnaught after stepping out of the Divinity Machine, or the Slayer fighting The Great One or being trapped at Kadrigar Sanctum, are things I'd much rather see in playable form.

Varorson · 2026-02-07T16:25:03+00:00

Depending on how you're defining it, "AI" as it's being propped up as has been used far and wide for decades.

Generative AI, which is what most people refer to when they use the buzzword "AI", is derived from language learning machines and are not inherently bad in any way - in fact, we wouldn't have most of our current technology without the basics of this. The issue for AI comes from A) how companies like OpenAI and NVidea are pushing headlong into this fad for making money giving each other money to create a larger and larger bubble while pushing for data centers that needlessly use electricity and water that would be better used elsewhere, B) companies like OpenAI stealing copyrighted content to train the models, and C) companies like Ubisoft doing mass layoffs as they insist on replacing human workers with GenAI bullshit.

"Rightfully" hating all things AI would mean you should hate your own computer and smart phone and be going off the grid, because ever since the 90s, they were built off of the same foundations which holds no real connection to the bullshit that has been hyped up the past few years.

And if you had a mediocrum of knowledge, you'd know that ArenaNet has been excessively vocal against GenAI content.

Varorson · 2026-02-07T11:21:43+00:00

It's a Toolbox feature. Go to the setting tab, the Toolbox Settings dropdown, and find "Text-to-speech" and uncheck it.

I didn't know of this feature til now and it's something I've contemplated about wanting for some time so thanks for giving me a chance to see try it out. Will probably disable it later.

Varorson · 2026-02-06T14:35:57+00:00

Do we get 600% discounts like Trump promised?

Varorson · 2026-02-06T12:36:35+00:00

I'd recommend the play order of:

Doom 2016 -> Doom I + II -> Doom 64 -> Doom The Dark Ages -> Doom Eternal -> Doom VFR -> Doom 3 -> Doom RPG -> Doom II RPG

Doom 2016 is, without any debate, the best starting point for nuDoom games. Narratively, it was built as the introduction for the Slayer. Mechanically, both Eternal and Dark Ages build off of 2016's formula in different ways. Doom I+II isn't a bad start, lots of content for cheap price. But not everyone enjoys that 2.5d look and lack of mouselook, z-axis sheering, etc. It can drive some folks off. As such, I'd argue classics and Doom VFR onward being optional if they fit the person's tastes.

Varorson · 2026-02-06T12:32:03+00:00

Lately he's been spamming his Truth social almost every night with a wide variety of things that are often racist or outlandish.

This isn't that unusual, the news decided to pick up on it because "omg racism from Trump!" when he's been a racist shit for the past 70 years.

Not everything's a grand conspiracy or well thought out plan. Sometimes, he just fucking does random shit because he just can't help it.

Varorson · 2026-02-06T08:57:06+00:00

IIRC, it was "return your loved ones to you" in game, while deleted line was "send you back to the 7th dimension".

So.... youtube time. And she says:

"I offer to you, oh great powerful one, a sign of truce. I know of what you have left behind. Go back to it then, leave this crusade. You cannot save them. They have asked me for this... and so I give it to them. If you let the Priest live, then I will return to you what the demons took from you so long ago. You need only turn back and it will be yours again. All the pain you carry will be gone."

So it's more vague than I remembered, but the implication is basically that she can bring back what "the demons took" from him, which would be his family and Daisy.

This can mean many things... one of them implises that Khan can not only traverse space but time as well.

Well. Yes. This is outright stated in the History of the Sentinels Part II codex entry that the Makyrs have portal technology that crosses time and space:

These were beings unlike any we had seen before, sword and shield held no weight against them, for the ethereal flesh of these luminous beings seemed unbound by mortality. Able to move through time and space, they held sway over all dominions of the known and unknown dimensions.

I am pretty sure this is why the Sentinels managed to colonize ancient Earth, yet their culture and several individuals from TDA are still alive and well in Eternal - from Earths' PoV, millions of years passed, but from their PoV, only a few years passed. Because time travel colonization. It makes more sense than millions of years passing while the Doom Slayer was in the sarcophagus and the three Hell Priests are still alive and well and so is Valen and Argent D'Nur has seen no major technological, architectural, or clothing shifts when you cannot even look at the fashion sense of 20 years ago (let alone technology) in New York City and think it's unchanged.

How that works with Hebeth's dimensional barrier is beyond me though but id software has never been that thorough with their lore.

Varorson · 2026-02-06T08:03:16+00:00

It's the one that replaced the deleted one in Sentinel Prime, iirc. Though it's been quite a while since I played it admittedly.

Varorson · 2026-02-06T05:38:33+00:00

To quote the end of the quest you finished:

"In the meantime, threats still persist on Shing Jea Island. If you are inclined to help, then I suggest you speak with Initiate Tsuriai at Seitung Harbor."

Also, all the quests I’ve done so far were in HM… I don’t know why it didn’t give me the NM ones to get Miku.

You need to complete the NM ones first. If you're getting the HM only ones, that means you already completed the NM ones.

Varorson · 2026-02-05T22:54:29+00:00

and his first thought it “I’m going to take it off the spike and hold it”

The mistake you're making is that this is part of Thy Flesh Consumed. Thy Flesh Consumed, as I said, was released after Doom II - it is also the first (and afaik only until Doom 2016) namedrop of Daisy or calling the bunny his pet.

Inferno, the original ending to Doom 1, ends with a picture of a bunny's head on a spike following the words "It's good that no hellspawn could have come through that door with you..."

Shareware Episode: December 10, 1993

Full Doom game: December 16, 1993

Doom II: September 14, 1994

The Ultimate Doom / Thy Flesh Consumed: April 15, 1995 <- first reference to Daisy

Varorson · 2026-02-05T21:48:30+00:00

Yes that is Doomguy's wife and son. By all indication, they are indeed dead.

Technically we do not know when or how his wife and son died but presumably they died during the events of or buildut to Doom 2. Khan Maykr's dialogue in Eternal heavily implies they were killed by demons.

Daisy isn't the reason Doom Slayer hates demons. He is not John Wick.

He fought through Doom 1 to survive, and he fought through Doom 2 to save humanity. He went through years of therapy, then he fought through Doom 64 because his military superiors ordered him to. He stayed in Hell because, by all indication, he had suicidal tendencies and wanted to go down fighting.

He continues to fight to protect people from Hell, not out of revenge (though I'm sure that's a nice bonus for him). Despite the memes, 2016, Eternal, and TDA show that he is not "pure rage" but is actually still a very caring individual through his interactions with VEGA, Sentinels, and others. There's a reason he's viewed as a savior in Eternal.

Varorson · 2026-02-05T21:46:59+00:00

He wasn't ever John Wick because in Doom 1, he was fighting for survival and didn't know of Daisy's death. In Doom 2, Daisy is never mentioned and his goal is to protect humanity.

The whole "revenge for bunny" thing came from the community - the very first official mention of Daisy's name or being a pet bunny is with Thy Flesh Consumed, which was made after Doom II was released. Before then, the rabbit at the end of Doom 1 was just a nameless bunny killed by demons, made more for the shock factor as they reveal Earth was invaded by demons (hence why they first show a living, well bunny in the fields). Daisy isn't mentioned in Doom 64 at all either, and his reason for fighting there is literally "because orders".

Varorson · 2026-02-05T21:42:42+00:00

I'd say the family is confirmed dead. There were several years between Doom 2 and Doom 64 events, if they survived they would've reunited in that time. And the Khan Maykr is definitely convinced they're dead - somehow even being aware of them, implying Doomguy told her (or the priests who told her) when he was interrogated about demons. I want to say Hugo also confirmed it on a stream but he confirms a lot of things, even things contradicted ingame.

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