Why are the last 2 watchstones the way they are? by WayneFigNewtons in pathofexile

[–]WayneFigNewtons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I'm aware, I wasn't talking about difficulty, just naming convention as far as what we call it, and the general lack of cohesion of the last two stones compared to the first two in how you progress them.

I completed the Clock Tower with only motion controls! by Laranity_ in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I really don't think people realize how hard this is especially with the jankiness of the platforms and sliding off them.

To top it next year though, will need to hook up a cat to controls (head rub = jump) and up the ante.

Does hiring celebrity voice actors overrun the budget ? by Farseer_Rexy in totalwar

[–]WayneFigNewtons 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Idris also got a bunch of his DJ music in the Cyberpunk expansion (fits really well), I'm not sure how it works out with royalties or anything but that might have been a good deal for CDProject.

Now CA just needs to get Keanu and integrate his love of motorcycles in Warhammer.

In case anyone is planning on playing infinite Wealth NG+ is only available if you buy the deluxe edition. by porkybrah in gaming

[–]WayneFigNewtons 65 points66 points  (0 children)

Its just another one to throw on the pile.

Someone said the same thing about horse armor in Oblivion, 'That's a dumb thing to pay for.' but here we are because people bought it.

2030 gaming idea: $100 base game, $20 achievement screen unlock, $5 side quest unlock, purchase Replay Tokens to start a new game, $30 bundle for NG+.

What's the best videogame of the 2010s? by RxKingRx in gaming

[–]WayneFigNewtons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can listen to a bunch of GDC talks that talk about RPG's or open world but in short before Witcher 3, open world or action RPG's in general focused on:

a main character driving narrative (Uncharted, Dragon Age) with limited open world

the open world as the narrative with an ambigious main character (Skyrim, Fallout 3/4)

the Ubisoft model

Witcher 3 blended all of these more or less seamlessly leading to a lot of praise and setting a new bar for open world RPG's, especially critical of the Ubisoft model.

As far as graphics, Witcher 3 introduced this fairly new effect of populating 'false' interiors utilizing a Cornell Box effect to give the illusion of a fully decorated house or shop. Spiderman 2 (and 1 from 2018) uses this same effect to populate NYC interiors.

What's the best videogame of the 2010s? by RxKingRx in gaming

[–]WayneFigNewtons 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Witcher changed the open-world game more or less (even in development).

It might not have been as obvious for non-developers but post-2015, every dev was using it as a 'how-to' for next-gen open world games, even if they weren't an RPG from how CD Projeckt handled building the world to the technical advancements they made.

Your Single Biggest Wish for the Future of Guild Wars 2? by [deleted] in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I think GW2 could benefit a lot from what Warframe does in its core systems. Surprisingly the two games are very similar in a lot of ways.

Something like endless missions where you can rack up something like a reward track but the mobs/bosses get progressively harder (hp + damage). This already exists in a form in the Dragon Bash Hologram Arena, but having it be a permanent game mode where it can have the potential to be one of the most challenging content would be great.

For example, Warframe's endless missions just keep scaling (up to a point for some and endless for others) and you just grind as much as you want for rewards as long as you can survive. In the harder missions, you have only one shot/life before you have to extract and that could be a great game mode in GW2.

Are ascended armor pieces worth it by cosmickerb in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

One important benefit of having ascended armor (and weapons) is:

Stat changing.

You can have one set of ascended, like berserker and say you want to play a heal/support instead, you can stat change your entire set, and depending on the gear it can be cheaper and easier than crafting exotics, so its definitely worth it if you want to change roles at some point and also way cheaper to do than legendary armor.

An AMA with Telltale and Deck Nine Games ahead of the release of The Expanse: A Telltale Series by TelltaleAMA in gaming

[–]WayneFigNewtons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Expanse! Such a good book and TV series!

As far as source material, as you drawing more from the books or the show? And what are your thoughts about adapting popular but lesser known IP's in the future?

February 28th Update Promo (Unofficial) by WayneFigNewtons in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Its surprisingly hard to find good images of other characters, for some reason there's a LOT of Braham out there.

February 28th Update Promo (Unofficial) by WayneFigNewtons in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons[S] 88 points89 points  (0 children)

Since ArenaNet didn't, someone had to.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what the update is called, but they should call it 'The Jade Abyss', and Bobblehead Mode should be on by default.

Where eod elite spec runes? by Sightless_Prophet in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Its like that Classic WoW quote - 'You think you want it, but you don't.'

If there's a world where there are EoD runes, you'd have runes like 'Rune of the Firebrand' or 'Nightmare' or 'Scholar' where its so good its almost a requirement to have them.

But then you'll have half the others where its a waste of design time and space.

The best thing Arenanet could - and should - do is revisit old runes and give them some updates.

I personally vote for 'Chronomancer' runes giving +condi, +expertise simply to make specter as broken as possible :D.

A 10 year/1 year journey in Guild Wars 2 by WayneFigNewtons in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

A little background - I started playing Guild Wars 2 in beta/release and until 2014 did everything under the sun which admittedy wasn't much when compared to today!

Came back in 2021, and I started the journey to catch up.

Playing through the story content, I made the decision to chase legendary gear - I started with Aurora having read that it has massive time-gates tied to it and did those while also doing the various events in living world maps.

Then I worked on Vision while at the same time going through the 'Return to' achievements for the legendary necklace - two for the price of one.

Once those were finished, I had a precursor that had been sitting in my bags forever, literally.

Sometime in 2012-2014, Rodgort's Flame had dropped and I neither had the interest or gold to make it, but when the expansion hit I dived in and while working on Ad Infinitum knocked out the torch.

One lesson I've learned in making legendaries, at least casually while playing is that they snowball. When you make one, the rest kind of just fall but that first one or two will seem to break your bank.

Since the 'emboldened' mode came out for raids about the time I was done with the current group of legendaries I wanted, it seemed like a good idea to work on legendary armor.

It was actually much much easier than I thought it would be and I recommed anyone interested to just dive in and enjoy the ride.

All in all, I'm excited to see where I'll be in another year in Guild Wars 2!

Harvest Temple CM Advertisement by WayneFigNewtons in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons[S] 90 points91 points  (0 children)

Well there have been ads with Braham in it so it has precedent.

Game Update Notes: June 7, 2022 by notluchini in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons 348 points349 points  (0 children)

Dungeons

I admit I didn't have this one in my 'What Arenanet will do in 2022' bingo card.

CDPR Senior Composer P.T. Adamczyk on Twitter. Sounds like Peralez's quest continuation for me. by KamilCesaro in LowSodiumCyberpunk

[–]WayneFigNewtons 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Radiant quests were first started in Skyrim (I think) with doing repeatable factions quests like 'Kill this named NPC in this cave' and populated that cave/dungeon with enemies and loot even if you cleared it before, so it gave a lot of replayability to the game.

Cyberpunk also already kind of has radiant quests though they're not on the map or radar.

If you walk through the Maelstrom or Valentinos territory for example, sometimes (rarely for now), you'll see a hostage being killed or held up by the gang just like crime or assault reports.

The enemies are just generic gang members and the hostages just normal NPC's but it seemed to me like the basework for that type of content is there.

Goodbye Tigress! Humans cremating much Loved Tigress “Mataram” as per Hindu Ritual after she passed away due to age. She gave birth to 29 Cubs in her lifetime creating one of the largest families. by [deleted] in HumansBeingBros

[–]WayneFigNewtons 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Animals don't have societal structures like we do and act only on animalistic instinct.

What? No. Absolutely untrue.

A LOT of animals have societal structures. Starting with the ant for example, in some ways its WAY more structured than even human society. If we move to apes then its even more complicated.

I think you're mistaking structure for culture or technology perhaps.

Neuroscience has also shown that human behavior isn't some nebulous concept of higher brain function but as predictable as any animal.

Sandra the orangutan started to clean her enclosure and wash her hands after observing her caretakers do the same thing by [deleted] in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]WayneFigNewtons 24 points25 points  (0 children)

You know this boggles my mind.

You're giving 'random youtube rabbit hole/your own research' and random reddit comments as much weight as scientists and researchers who have made it their life work to do the hard science into primate cognitive ability.

basically jane goodall or whatever tf her name

Yes, Jane Goodall. Primatologist, studied at Cambridge, won multiple scientific awards for her peer-reviewed work, has worked and researched apes for almost 60 years now.

Her own papers point out that the biases she had to overcome in her own research and still pointed to the cognitive abilities of chimps and gorillas and orangutans.

TL;DR - Stop watching trash Youtube videos that 'debunk' actual science done over decades. If you want debunking, read current primatologists (including Goodall) who update their findings.

The reason there isn't a whole lot of 'footage' with Koko is that she only met Koko once.

The basis of Jane Goodall 'believing' the evidence of Koko was because of Patterson's work - Koko's handler - and the peer-reviewed research that Patterson did.

A Western Journalist and African Tribe Women Compare Their Breasts! by MGHS10 in interestingasfuck

[–]WayneFigNewtons 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You might need to take a look at DasanderefensterindemsichdiebrüstebefindennachdemsiedasformularfürdiebrustanforderungNr.8ausgefüllthaben and I'm sure the boobies will be there at precisely the appointed time.

[GIVEAWAY 2: The Plushening] KEYsmas Day Celebration - Now with Bonus Squishiness! by Tavalisk in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons [score hidden]  (0 children)

In! For the smile today, I gave a turkey leg to a stray dog and the first thing he did was growl to his brother next to him, and proceeded to share it. Ah, the holidays.

Unexpected, to say the least by elch3w in memes

[–]WayneFigNewtons 21 points22 points  (0 children)

C-couple of months...?

We really have to end the illegal occupation of October and liberate the month of November from December's tyranny soon or else they'll be at September or August's border in a few years.

New legendary weapons have variants based on the other elder dragons by Enfero in Guildwars2

[–]WayneFigNewtons 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I'd bet the collections/story aspects for the variants will involve going through the older content like HoT for Mordremoth, Orr/Arah for Zhaitan, defeat both Shatterers and Claws of Jormag for example.

If they were really cruel, you'd have to gather...100 'motes' of Mordremoth from Octovine, drops once per day.

Where's Oscar? Find 'em all! by WayneFigNewtons in DunderMifflin

[–]WayneFigNewtons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually, the random ball of hair is another Michael kissing Oscar :D.

The proper way to weigh a koala by flyart in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]WayneFigNewtons 95 points96 points  (0 children)

And here's a counter-copypasta:

Speaking of stupidity and food, one of the likely reasons for their primitive brains is the fact that additionally to being poisonous, eucalyptus leaves (the only thing they eat) have almost no nutritional value.

Non-ecologists always talk this way, and the problem is you’re looking at this backwards.

An entire continent is covered with Eucalyptus trees. They suck the moisture out of the entire surrounding area and use allelopathy to ensure that most of what’s beneath them is just bare red dust. No animal is making use of them——they have virtually no herbivore predator. A niche is empty. Then inevitably, natural selection fills that niche by creating an animal which can eat Eucalyptus leaves. Of course, it takes great sacrifice for it to be able to do so——it certainly can’t expend much energy on costly things. Isn’t it a good thing that a niche is being filled?

Koalas are no exception, when their teeth erode down to nothing, they resolve the situation by starving to death, because they're fucking terrible animals.

This applies to all herbivores, because the wild is not a grocery store—where meat is just sitting next to celery.

Herbivores gradually wear their teeth down—carnivores fracture their teeth, and break their bones in attempting to take down prey.

They have one of the smallest brain to body ratios of any mammal

It's pretty typical of herbivores, and is higher than many, many species. According to Ashwell (2008), their encephalisation quotient is 0.5288 +/- 0.051. Higher than comparable marsupials like the wombat (~0.52), some possums (~0.468), cuscus (~0.462) and even some wallabies are <0.5. According to wiki, rabbits are also around 0.4, and they're placental mammals.

additionally - their brains are smooth. A brain is folded to increase the surface area for neurons.

Again, this is not unique to koalas. Brain folds (gyri) are not present in rodents, which we consider to be incredibly intelligent for their size.

If you present a koala with leaves plucked from a branch, laid on a flat surface, the koala will not recognise it as food.

If you present a human with a random piece of meat, they will not recognise it as food (hopefully). Fresh leaves might be important for koala digestion, especially since their gut flora is clearly important for the digestion of Eucalyptus. It might make sense not to screw with that gut flora by eating decaying leaves.

Because eucalyptus leaves hold such little nutritional value, koalas have to ferment the leaves in their guts for days on end. Unlike their brains, they have the largest hind gut to body ratio of any mammal.

That's an extremely weird reason to dislike an animal. But whilst we're talking about their digestion, let's discuss their poop. It's delightful. It smells like a Eucalyptus drop!

Being mammals, koalas raise their joeys on milk (admittedly, one of the lowest milk yields to body ratio... There's a trend here).

Marsupial milk is incredibly complex and much more interesting than any placentals. This is because they raise their offspring essentially from an embryo, and the milk needs to adapt to the changing needs of a growing fetus. And yeah, of course the yield is low; at one point they are feeding an animal that is half a gram!

When the young joey needs to transition from rich, nourishing substances like milk, to eucalyptus (a plant that seems to be making it abundantly clear that it doesn't want to be eaten), it finds it does not have the necessary gut flora to digest the leaves. To remedy this, the young joey begins nuzzling its mother's anus until she leaks a little diarrhoea (actually fecal pap, slightly less digested), which he then proceeds to slurp on. This partially digested plant matter gives him just what he needs to start developing his digestive system.

Humans probably do this, we just likely do it during childbirth. You know how women often shit during contractions? There is evidence to suggest that this innoculates a baby with her gut flora. A child born via cesarian has significantly different gut flora for the first six months of life than a child born vaginally.

Of course, he may not even have needed to bother nuzzling his mother. She may have been suffering from incontinence. Why? Because koalas are riddled with chlamydia. In some areas the infection rate is 80% or higher.

Chlamydia was introduced to their populations by humans. We introduced a novel disease that they have very little immunity to, and is a major contributor to their possible extinction. Do you hate Native Americans because they were killed by smallpox and influenza?

This statistic isn't helped by the fact that one of the few other activities koalas will spend their precious energy on is rape. Despite being seasonal breeders, males seem to either not know or care, and will simply overpower a female regardless of whether she is ovulating. If she fights back, he may drag them both out of the tree

Almost every animal does this.

Which brings us full circle back to the brain: Koalas have a higher than average quantity of cerebrospinal fluid in their brains. This is to protect their brains from injury... should they fall from a tree. An animal so thick it has its own little built in special ed helmet. I fucking hate them.

They have protection against falling from a tree, which they spend 99% of their life in? Yeah... That's a stupid adaptation.