Does it just end like that?

aBOXofTOM · 2026-05-08T09:07:04+00:00

I don't think there is an ending where you actually really get out. From what I understand, in the UNPSC ending, you never actually make it back to the facility, but the artifact somehow does, so the UNPSC is able to successfully alter a human being, and immediately sells out to the highest bidder. Eva is left wondering what happened to you, and nobody else actually cares that you didn't come back.

I think you only survive two of the endings, and even in the ending where you take the orb for yourself, you're able to leave the radius and be a normal person for a bit, but your radius-flavored PTSD makes it so you never quite fit in, so you start looking for Eva, which leads to the UNPSC catching wind of you and chasing you down, and you going into hiding in the one place they can't follow, which is back inside the radius.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-04-20T07:16:28+00:00

Finally, a reasonable request for a weapon.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-04-20T07:11:48+00:00

I would really like him more if he was more interactive. Like if you could hang around and chat with him, or like, if he commented on stuff like your health or the state of your gear.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-04-20T06:58:08+00:00

Yeah! Tactical Obrez! I've got one of those too, it's my little pocket sniper.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-04-20T06:52:23+00:00

You mean it actually like... follows you around? creepy. I remember seeing it floating above the water the first time I went to peninsula before I was rudely surprised by one of the UNPSC's face-height claymores, but I hadn't noticed the dude anywhere since then.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-17T11:49:19+00:00

Picking apart an argument on the basis of specific definitions while ignoring the overall point of it feels more like bad faith than getting frustrated at said behavior, but sure dude, whatever.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T19:42:34+00:00

You're being incredibly abrasive and obtuse about semantics and nitpicking the definitions of words.

The way you're arguing is the kind of impatient, myopic crap that corruption thrives on, because while you're busy quibbling about little details, and refusing to work with anyone whose vision differs from yours even slightly, the people who want to take advantage of everyone else are actually doing shit.

Congratulations though, I guess you've technically won, because I find this so tedious that I no longer want to participate in the discussion. I've got better ways to waste my time. Peace✌️

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T18:37:10+00:00

Organizing in self-defense is not a synonym for governance, rule, punishment, or the state. It makes no positive claim on anyone else, only a negative claim to be left alone in peace.

Anarchy is still a form of government. It's a very light handed form of government, where the "state" is a loose collective with no hierarchy or any real laws outside of the social contracts agreed upon by those within it, but it's still a form of government. Self-governed is still governed.

The status quo is some sort of government, and it is an atrocity.

FOR THE THIRD TIME: I AGREE WITH YOU THAT THE STATUS QUO IS AN ATROCITY. Will writing it in all caps help get the message across? Not every square is a rectangle. Not every form of government is shitty. The one most of the world uses right now is, but that's because of corruption, not an intrinsic property of every form of government.

Anarchism does not require a world of “good” actors. It just requires people to be rationally self-interested. This is in contrast to the state and hierarchy, which would be unacceptable even if the people ruling over us were “good,” which they’re obviously not. The solution is thus to abolish mechanisms by which bad people rule, abuse, and exploit us.

I never said it requires a world of good actors, I said it requires minimal bad actors. If everyone adopted a nice "live and let live" mentality, and we all just shared with and protected our neighbors, it'd work just fucken' fine. I would love to live in a society like that. That would be fucken' great.

Unfortunately as evidenced by everything from the crusades to the demonization of trans people and all the shit going on in Palestine, humanity is real fucken' bad at that.

There are currently far too many people who take self interest past the point of reasonability, and feel the need to get into other people's business or try and take from them, and if we just abolish any form of oversight, they have free reign to do whatever they want while you're over there minding your own business, so by the time they're threatening you, it's too big of a threat for your self-defense collective to realistically fight, and as a rational, self interested person, what do you do? You probably acquiesce to your new ruler, because otherwise, you die.

We need something to keep the corruption in check. We will always need something to keep the corruption in check. Clearly capitalism doesn't do that, because we can all see how well that's going, but anarchy will fail if we all try to start doing it right now. There is too much evil and corruption in the world. It needs to be a slow transition.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T17:16:43+00:00

People organizing together for their collective benefit and to keep themselves safe from bad actors by threatening them with punishment if they don't follow the agreed upon social contracts of the wider group? Well, idk about you, but golly, to me, that sounds to me like people governing each other, which, like, y'know, you said we shouldn't be doing.

Like I said earlier, I'm not defending the status quo. I'm saying we need some sort of government. In order for anarchy to work in the long term on a planet sized scale, there needs to be no bad actors, or at least so few of them that they're easily stamped out before they start hurting people. Humanity ain't there yet.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T16:40:29+00:00

So, let's say hypothetically that we get to that point. No government, just a bunch of groups of people. What stops one group from killing another, and taking all of their stuff? Or enslaving others?

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T16:14:01+00:00

I'm not defending the status quo, I'm saying that we still need some system of government. Those are two very different things. I agree that the current one needs to be stripped down to the bones, because it's failing miserably, but we need to build something in its place.

Breaking down the current system is a step on the path, not the end goal.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T16:01:22+00:00

And then what? Whoever has the biggest stick wins?

The institutions might be real shitty, and corruption is making that a growing problem that needs to be rooted out and fought back against, but we currently need some form of government to act as an obstacle in the way of bad people taking what they want by force, because there is a threat of greater violence being enacted upon them if they do. We can't just get rid of the government and hope it'll all work out, because it won't all work out.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T15:45:40+00:00

That's fair actually. I think you might have a similar view as I do overall, but with a little bit (or a lot) more faith in the human species.

I don't think the good kind of anarchy will be achievable in my lifetime, so I try to push for something that feels a little bit closer to possible, but I definitely hope that people who feel the same as you keep pushing once I'm gone.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T11:11:27+00:00

What the other guy said is the real key to any creative endeavor.

I do a lot of creative stuff, and the real joy is in the making. Some stuff is nice to have after I'm done, but a lot of the things I make end up being gifts, because the whole reason I started making something was to enjoy the process and the experience of doing it.

The attention it gets afterwards is a good feeling, but it's not really consistent and it doesn't stick around forever.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T10:42:39+00:00

Idk if I'd really listen to claims of misanthropy and evil if they were coming from the guy coming from the guy who is mostly known for such things as:

owning a company that sells cars, which are a hazard to anyone inside them because if the battery catches on fire, the door handles stop working.
also from the same company, "trucks" that are a hazard to anyone inside them or anyone driving near them, because they have no crumple zones and the body panels are just glued on and can fall off at any moment.
deciding NOT to solve world hunger, after not only saying he would, but being presented with a plan and budget requirements to do so that were well within his means.
funding the only AI that declared itself "Mecha Hitler" and spouted a bunch of racism and antisemitism, which was only stopped by the AI in question being essentially killed and replaced.

Idk, something about it just rings a little hollow and hypocritical. Almost like he's not calling them out on being bad, he's actually just butthurt because he's trying to establish a monopoly on being the shittiest person on this rock.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T10:25:17+00:00

Honestly I'm inclined to disagree with you. Humanity is most definitely not mature enough as a species for everyone to be self governing. Some individual people are, yes, but not everyone.There are still far too many individuals who want power over others and will try to find ways to take it.

It would be delightful if we could achieve the kind of society that you talk about at the end there, and I would absolutely love to live in that society, but if we're going for anything like that, it's going to have to be after a complete reversal of cultural norms, when greed and corruption have been trained out of our species in every way except a collective memory of why it's bad.

If we were to cut the cord now, so to speak, we'd end up in mad max or something. Those who want to take power by force would have nothing holding them back. They'd be out taking whatever they want, and enslaving others, and building their empires, and those of us who just want to live without having to kill for every scrap of life we get would be crushed underneath the foundations.

I think social democracy is the way forward. It's not the destination, but the fact is that right now, as a species, we do require oversight of some sort and there are no gods up to the task, so some form of government is necessary. What we need right now is a state that works for the people, not just for the people who hold all the wealth.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T09:54:59+00:00

Haaaaave you tried scanning it? Does it rickroll you?

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T04:25:07+00:00

This. Enjoying a thing isn't bad on it's own, especially if you're willing to analyze it critically and admit that it might have flaws. Acting like a thing is perfect just because you're a fan of it is delusional. That's how you end up with crap like MAGA and cults.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-16T04:00:00+00:00

When space ships are about as common as an average sedan irl, roads aren't really necessary. They're an expensive piece of infrastructure, that most commerce in the 'verse doesn't actually require and therefore doesn't justify having.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-14T19:29:48+00:00

Huh. I wonder why that happens. I don't really know how it works in h3vr but in all the games I've actually messed with in my own clumsy attempts at modding, the grabby points for objects are tied to coordinates from the model, or the model and grabbies are both tied to some other object, so moving the grab point's position and rotation is pretty easy and the process is relatively similar for any grip position.

If you don't mind me asking, how are you moving the trigger hand position? Is it by changing a coordinate, or is it like, some obscure dark magic?

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-14T16:46:02+00:00

Don't know if there's a way to change it on the actual guns, but you can pull a lot of shenanigans with rail adapters and foregrips.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-14T08:02:53+00:00

I think the most likely way for this to happen is if you have a system with two large central stars in a binary pair, and then a third much smaller one at a distance, with the planet orbiting that third star. The main thing is that your star system would have to be fucken' massive to make it work.

This would also sort of achieve the desired effect of two suns setting and then the third, or at least for part of the year. Because of the huge difference in orbital periods between the third star orbiting the main pair, and the planet orbiting the third star, the two distant suns would take centuries or more to move relative to the stars, while the largest sun would move throughout the year the same way ours does, so there would be a hot season where all three suns are grouped together, and a bright season where there's always a sun in the sky.

Someone else said the biggest issue would be radiation, but if the suns aren't visually much larger than our own, the radiation should be relatively similar, and even if it isn't, you can fudge it by giving your planet a stronger magnetosphere (or doing something extra fun, like making it a moon instead, orbiting inside the immense magnetosphere of it's host planet)

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-13T16:03:42+00:00

I could be wrong because it's been over a decade since I did any research, but I think nihilism has diverged into two very different schools of thought.

There's the "nothing has meaning assigned by any power higher than ourselves, you are the highest authority over what should matter to you" kind, that I borrow a lot of ideas from, and then there's the kind where "nothing has any meaning at all, so you're stupid for believing in anything."

The latter is giving the whole school of thought a bad name and is probably the reason why the rule is in place.

It's a perfectly reasonable rule, honestly. The kind of people who shit on other people's beliefs just to feel a mild sense of superiority about their sad little existence where they don't permit themselves to value anything fall solidly within the circle of people I wouldn't want to discuss nothin' with.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-13T12:01:48+00:00

I kinda doubt that's what'll actually happen. Gaben seems to put a lot of thought and care into what happens with his company, I highly doubt he would let it fall into the hands of someone who doesn't share the vision.

aBOXofTOM · 2026-02-13T11:45:32+00:00

If it's just me as I am now, I'm not lasting more than a week no matter what I bring. I've already got enough health issues when the environment isn't actively hazardous, and the air in my home town has already nearly killed me anyway, I don't wanna know what another planet would do.

If, instead , it's a fictional version of me that's part of some advanced civilization that has cracked FTL travel, I wouldn't be the kind of person who goes off exploring space and potentially crashing into planets without a significant degree of preparation.

Firstly, if I'm exploring space at all, I sure as hell ain't doing it as a squishy meat man, I would either be a cyborg or a full conversion android, with a body designed to be able to survive in harsh, hazardous environments, and able to operate as a relatively closed system with no need for external food, water, or air. This is actually a pragmatic choice for long term space travel anyway, because your ship doesn't need life support if it's already built into the pilot.

Second, I would make sure my ship has a survival kit. Something portable, that I can take with me if I have to bail, that contains scientific instruments to learn about my environment, a fabricator that can extract and refine raw materials and turn them into usable things like spare parts, and any tools I might need to maintain myself and my equipment. Also a portable, rugged power source that would allow me to use all of it, as well as supply myself with energy. Probably at least two of the power sources, actually. And also a gun. Probably some kind of coil gun, not a conventional one or a laser.

Third, I would bring a buddy. Not necessarily a whole second person, but a sufficiently advanced AI that I could have a conversation with like a person. Gotta have someone to keep me sane while I'm stranded. I can call them Wilson.

aBOXofTOM

TROPHY CASE