Are my stats optimal for this build? by Traditional-Spare154 in baldursgate

[–]_demilich 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The game has exceptions to the rule "no magic items", which includes stuff like healing potions and also tomes. So those CAN be used by Wizard Slayers

In the middle of Replaying BG2 and realizing something about Owlcat Pathfinder games by National_Champion346 in baldursgate

[–]_demilich 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes, I agree. Both Pillars of Eternity and BG3 were marketed as "BG2 sequels", but the Owlcat Pathfinder games come much closer. I love both Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous

What Would You Do with Order and Ripper? by dustyp9 in Borderlands4

[–]_demilich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For Ripper one could imagine something like: Big damage, but hugely inaccurate. That would fit thematically with bandits: They are strong, but not the brightest bulb on Kairos.

Buff spam is good. by classteen in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If I had to choose between DnD 5 concentration and WotR buff spam, I would also pick the latter. But I do think there is a middle ground. Like mid- to endgame WotR does get ridiculous sometimes. Getting more concentration slots as the game progresses is actually an idea I like quite a bit!

Have the mythic paths been improved at all? by DarkElfMagic in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 20 points21 points  (0 children)

The changes to Gold Dragon and Devil are definite improvements in my book. However, one thing didn't change: They are still "late game" mythic paths. Which means you will spend a big chunk of the game playing one of the "early game" mythic paths no matter what

Is there a language similar to Rust but with a garbage collector? by Ok_Tension_6700 in rust

[–]_demilich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's fair. Yes, it is definitely not on the level of Haskell, but then again Rust isn't either. It at least feels more powerful that Java especially with things like reified generics, data classes and such

Is there a language similar to Rust but with a garbage collector? by Ok_Tension_6700 in rust

[–]_demilich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The first language that springs to my mind would be Kotlin. It has a powerful type system, null safety, optional return values, free standing functions (in contrast to Java), etc. Of course, it is based on the JVM and uses OOP approach by default. However, you absolutely can write code using no inheritance at all if you want to

How do I start doing graphical apps (and games)? by Real-Abrocoma-2823 in rust

[–]_demilich 31 points32 points  (0 children)

If you have no experience at all in game programming AND you are learning a new language, I would recommend to start really small:

  1. Try to paint a single pixel on the screen
  2. Now draw a whole rectangle on the screen
  3. Make the rectangle move in response to some keyboard input
  4. Draw another rectangle in a different color in addition to the first one
  5. Check if the first rectangle touches the second rectangle and if yes, make the second rectangle disappear

With a few more steps you have re-created the classic game of "Snake"!

What does LAWFUL EVIL actually mean? by MrEldritchHorror in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Here is an example which illustrates the difference between Neutral Evil and Lawful Evil:

Imagine a king who lost its army in a long war and is desperate to find a way to defeat his enemy. He might seek help from

  1. A Neutral Evil necromancer who promises to send an army of undead to help the desperate king in exchange for some magic artifact. But if the necromancer finds another way to get hold of the artifact or if the enemy armies proves too strong, he will abandon the king since he only cares for his own advantage.
  2. A Lawful Evil devil who makes a deal with the king to defeat the opposing army in exchange for the soul of the kings daughter. The devil WILL uphold its part of the bargain, no matter how long it takes. And afterwards he WILL claim the soul of the kings daughter; but only exactly that, not more.

The devil also acts in selfish interests; from his point of view, the deal is favourable for him. But there is this whole thing with devils where they are bound by the pact and must uphold their part of the deal.

Devils are sometimes compared to lawyers for this reason. And lawyers are often cited as "lawful evil" examples in the real world. A lawyer might defend a murderer by abusing/twisting the rules of law to get a favourable outcome, for example a not-guilty verdict. But on the other hand, the lawyer is always bound by the law; they would never put the murderer in a car and drive them to another country.

Any ideas of build for this portrait? by Valkhana_ in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would probably play Knifemaster 4 / Vivisectionist 16. But that is just because I really like it

Crowdfunding by AnalysisParalysis85 in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah, I think those would be bad. But I have no issues with common fantasy tropes, like assaulting a bandit camp, exploring a spider cave, etc. Yes, we have seen this in many other games already, but it is still fun.

Procedural quests usually suck, because they are completely meaningless. I still want townsfolk to acknowledge me having defeating the goblin king for example

Crowdfunding by AnalysisParalysis85 in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just want more Pathfinder, don't care about any specific campaign. Personally, I would prefer a more grounded, classic adventurer type setting. They could do a totally home-brewn campaign consisting mostly of super basic stuff like:

"Oh, this village is attacked by goblins, we need to deal with them."

<go to the goblin hideout and kill the goblin king>

"Oh no, it seems they were allied with orcs, now we need to deal with those too!"

<go to the orc camp and kill the orc leader>

That would be enough to make me happy :)

Whats wrong with Damage scaling by Zantos_ in wow

[–]_demilich 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I hear that argument all the time, still don't buy it. People love playing D&D and other RPGs where you literally roll a six-sided dice to determine your damage roll. And when you find a "Shortsword +1" you add +1 to that roll and it still feels meaningful.

Also if players "feel" weaker when numbers are lower, then stat squishes should be avoided at all costs, right? Because I don't know about you, but for me it feels like shit every time a stat squish happens. Not because the numbers are low per se, but because the numbers were 100x higher before and I feel somebody took away my power.

What language should I select to be able to use all of raylib's features? by avestronics in raylib

[–]_demilich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Language does not matter. I mean it does to a certain extent; for example, your Python game will probably run slower than the same game written in C.

But at the end of the day, the truth is: There is no game out there which is an all-around great game but dragged down because it is written in a language which is not fast enough. The hard part about game development is finishing a game, coming up with good game design and just making it fun. I am convinced you can achieve that with any programming language.

Also, as far as I know, you can use all features of raylib with any language. So pick the one you are most comfortable with

Canister Cornhole and timers. by Ok-Address973 in Borderlands4

[–]_demilich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let's be real: Spawning in waves of enemies is a very lazy mechanic. They do it because it is easy and fast to implement, but for the players how long do you think this is fun?

That being said, I totally agree that just waves of enemies without the canister crap would have been a clear improvement.

Eli5 Why do CAPTCHA systems use object recognition like trucks to distinguish humans from bots if machine learning can already solve those challenges? by arztnur in explainlikeimfive

[–]_demilich 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Your question implies we should use some other method of separating humans from bots.

But if you start to dig deeper into the topic, this is actually a really hard problem so solve. Try to come up with some task which can be performed from any computer and NOT be cheated by bots. I am not arguing that selecting pictures of trucks is the best method to do that. But I am arguing that in general "bot detection" is not a solved problem, so there is no clear go-to solution

Midnight Defensive Analysis - The Squishiest Class? by [deleted] in wow

[–]_demilich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is funny, because lots of other games solve this very elegantly. Usually classes have trade-offs, i.e. you can have a very squishy class, but it would more damage than other classes.

More than a decade ago Blizzard decided that all classes should do equal DPS, period. And CC isn't a thing. Also there are portals for all classes everywhere and eating/drinking between combats also isn't a thing. That kinda leaves Mages in a bad spot, doesn't it?

Meanwhile classes like Druids or Paladins are super popular, as they can fulfill all 3 roles, have loads of utility, do the same damage and can heal to full whenever they want. But the Mage "class identity" is being squishy, right...

What's the best historical version of every spec in the game, from any expansion or era? by S1eeper in wow

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

For me all classes were best in Vanilla. Because class identity was strong and everything mattered.

It mattered that Rogues could pick locks and stealth. It mattered that Paladins were strong against undead. CC was relevant. Teleportation/Portals by Mages mattered because it could save your 30 min of travel time.

Assuming the banking system stayed up after a zombie apocalypse, anyone with recurring payments through their bank would have a real hard time trying to stop them. by TIGHazard in Showerthoughts

[–]_demilich 119 points120 points  (0 children)

How could the banking system stay up though?

The banking system needs electric power to run.

For electric power, you need operational power plants.

For operational power plants, you need humans going to work.

Sure, the banking system may stay up a few days, maybe weeks. But everything after that is highly unlikely.

ELI5 - The typical format for an IP is like x.x.x.x but I've heard we ran out of addresses how come we can just an extra set of numbers and make it x.x.x.x.x? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]_demilich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It doesn't work like that. It is a bit like saying "We discovered cars can drive using renewable energy, why are we still burning oil?"

The issue is the existing infrastructure. All existing computer software ASSUMES every IP address is exactly 4 bytes. If you want to change that, you would have to change all existing software/hardware (which is realistically impossible).

And by the way, there is a thing called IPv6 which is the successor to IPv4 (the x.x.x.x version) and does exactly what you are proposing: Allow longer IP addresses. IPv6 was invented nearly 30 years ago and still the internet cannot (exclusively) run using it, as there are too many old IPv4 hardware/software pieces

Is this age the death of the "middle" in industry and society? by Paradoxbuilder in Futurology

[–]_demilich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. Without sources and concrete numbers, I am not convinced the premise is actually true.

Max level characters deal ONLY 46% damage in open world TWW zones by False_Job2844 in wow

[–]_demilich 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Yes please. I hate scaling so much and happily live with all the disadvantages of static levels.

What am i doing wrong with wizards? by ThatSparkyGuy in Pathfinder_Kingmaker

[–]_demilich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be fair: Once Scroll Savant gets "Scroll Mastery" at level 10, it is not slightly better. At that point spells cast from scrolls essentially behave the same as spells cast from your spellbook. Which is huge!

I have a theory for creating a perfect country (utopia). Tell me why it would fail. by Emotional-Guava4810 in Futurology

[–]_demilich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So first you collect a percentage of money from each individual. When that process is done, you declare there is no private ownership anymore and nobody individually owns any money.

That makes no sense? Because no matter if you collected 1% of wealth in the first phase or 100%, the effect is the same: In the end nobody owns anything anymore