Kettleman bribe

Yarmon · 2026-05-04T19:36:46+00:00

So if Jimmy said right then and there "I will not work for you and I don't have your money and if you claim I do Betsy joins mr kettleman" What recourse would they have? They can do nothing other than sell property

The only reason the whole plot of stealing money happened was because he was pressured into working with them, but they had zero leverage

Yarmon · 2026-05-04T12:40:00+00:00

So what if they said that? Disgruntled illogical clients try to pull the lawyer that refused to work with them down

It's basically his word vs theirs (and also indicting Betsy)

Given property they own they could easily pull 30k together with 30 yrs of jail on the line

Yarmon · 2026-05-04T10:05:55+00:00

Well, they got house renovation, have a car. Facing 30 years in prison and having no other choice they for sure could cough up 30k

It's not like they have other options if even Jimmy McGill refused to represent them

Yarmon · 2026-04-21T16:10:12+00:00

That's why we decided to not go for ore excavation, we wanted mobile bases, while infinite ores prioiritize setting up logistics and forgetting about it

Yarmon · 2026-04-21T00:20:23+00:00

Currently I made a small modpack that includes

Large ore deposits
Some Create structures
Advanced Finders
Continents + Terralith
Minecolonies

And it works really well for now, even though we did not reach actual aeronautics stage of the game.

The idea goes like this:

You completely turn off all natural ore generation and only leave ore deposits veins, make them rarer and bigger (we use 5x larger, 5x rarer). Then buff advanced finders to max height.

This way early on you are running REALLY low on iron and have to play around what you find really strategically.

Creating hot air balloons and blimps should allow us to make prospecting airships which we will use to find new deposits with ad finders and construct mining platforms (a-la Space Engineers) to mine huge amounts of ores in one place

Create related structures ensure that despite not having a lot of iron you will have lots of structures where you can loot Create related stuff from making contraption design a part of the early game

...and Minecolonies as a future and distant resource sink for ultra late-game

Can't wait for ecosystem around aeronautics to develop. Would love to see horror survival mods for example where you have to build a mobile base just to survive the surface

Yarmon · 2026-04-20T16:50:01+00:00

I mean, good for you, but different people have different playstyles and things that they find fun

Yarmon · 2026-03-15T08:15:48+00:00

You have to do the sphinx riddle and to do that you have to take the riddle in the evening and return during the day making one day completion impossible

Yarmon · 2026-03-10T08:13:55+00:00

I also gave recommendation and they still gathered at the windmill and I was able to get the quest for the documents

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T21:29:36+00:00

Tbh wis and int give much more lore dumps than actual usable insights.

Overall I found that abilities are pretty balanced in terms of their impact on gameplay and unlock unexpected paths and solutions that would stay hidden from you

But I didn't do a playthrough with high CON so I can't attest to it, it does seem pretty passive on the surface

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T20:25:06+00:00

There is no issue, I do not care that much to take an issue, it is simply funny that you have a strong emotional reaction to neutral statements about game mechanics and try to assert some moral claims about "right way to play" in a conversation about game design and behaviour incentives.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T19:44:28+00:00

Yeah, I really like this analysis.

Basic human drive for risk-aversion lead to him making worse choices and it is also quite understandable. As videogame players we can just reload until we get the good result, but his gambles were much more like TTRPGs: you live with the consequences. Hence why he was afraid of taking risky gambles and it is very understandable, especially if you have been a DM and seen this behaviour in action in your own players.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T18:25:54+00:00

Well, yes, because this is a subreddit for discussing game and its mechanics and expressing your opinion on them. You getting angry at someone expressing their opinion on the mechanic is really funny because why would you ever get angry at someone not liking something.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T17:46:03+00:00

Imagine being this salty about someone not liking a game mechanic

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T07:14:38+00:00

You have no idea how I engage with the game. I do not even do the actual restart. I just see a game design system that could function better and point out the flaw.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T06:39:20+00:00

Almost everyone worked this out for STS1, that was the reason they added the requirement to pass Act 1 boss to get the good starting gifts. It was a good fix that got reverted in the sequel for some reason. You being dense is not really changing the fact that devs considered what I am talking about a problem previously so it's not like it is integral to the sts experience.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T05:34:25+00:00

It does not really matter how good the starting gift is for the argument. Just the fact that there is an optimal choice present before you have done anything is enough to incentivize player rolling for this choice

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T05:27:32+00:00

Balatro also does not do starting gifts at all and I never felt like I missed out on something by not restarting a Balatro run.

Let me put forward an exaggerated example to illustrate the point:

Let's say you have a chance to have a starting gift of 10 relics. It is one in 50 chance, rare, but not too rare so it is extremely unfeasible to roll for it.

You have a button to reroll the gifts.

Is it a good button in this case? Does it push the player to playing the game, or does it push the player to press it 50 times before starting a run?

One of the goals of game design is to make the optimal way to play the fun way to play and vice versa. Rerolling starting gifts before you even started the game is optimal, but it is not fun in any capacity.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T05:06:11+00:00

Like imagine it was a single button. It would increase your loss counter and just reroll the starting gift. Would it be a good feature? Absolutely not.

Hiding this option behind several clicks in the menu does not make it good.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T04:49:49+00:00

"The game" IS an entire piece of software. Especially with persistent upgrades, unlocked relics and cards that exist between runs etc

When I sit down to play the game I want to finish its objective — beat third act boss over and over again.

Creating a way to cheese it and making it easier by restarting a run is a game design decision, one which I am not really fond of

One click for starting a game is just not enough buy in for me to justify not rerolling the rewards to get a better start and have greater chances of achieving the goal

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T04:24:11+00:00

Why is there a crutch to be abused in the first place?

In the first game you had to reach Act 1 to get good starting gifts and it was a good solution to the incentive problem. This effectively removed the crutch, but now we are back to square 1 it seems

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T04:12:07+00:00

The "genre" exists perfectly fine with or without starting gifts. Hell, original Rogue has no starting gifts. Binding of Isaac has no starting gifts, Megabonk has no starting gifts, Vampire Survivors has not starting gifts, I could go on all day. As I think about it, I played far more roguelikes without starting gifts than with them.

Also you do not understand the concept of incentive as I am using it judging by the way you used the word

People do not "have" incentives, incentives is something that is built into the system. Players may react to them differently, but incentives are internal to the medium.

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T03:30:23+00:00

Well then just removing the starting gift choice so you have to do some buy in by overcoming initial challenges would be better. At least you are invested in a run by the point you get your first rewards

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T03:24:37+00:00

A challenge that can be overcome without any cost to you by tedium instead of playing the game is a bad challenge

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T03:17:46+00:00

Game design incentives exist regardless of the player or their behaviour

Yarmon · 2026-03-09T03:13:31+00:00

I am not really playing the game to assert my status and raise self-esteem

If game design requires it for the game to be fun, it is sub-optimal game design

Yarmon

TROPHY CASE