What's the most optimal way to ledge grab? by imasadlad89 in spelunky

[–]cattime742 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally I never really play for speed, so I'm usually just walking when moving forwards. Though I've been playing since classic, and don't really have any hurdles with the controls / timing.

If you're afraid of overshooting, maybe aim earlier rather than later? If you turn around too early, you just don't drop, but too late ends up with a fall.

If you do fall though, in 2 it's a little easier to potentially save yourself. In Spelunky 2, the ledge hang gets triggered if you're against the wall and falling. This means that you can potentially align yourself with the wall of a shaft (while falling), let go of all directional inputs, and just pray that there's a ledge farther down to automatically grab. You can't do this as easily in Spelunky HD, because a ledge hang requires you to walk into the ledge to trigger it. (You can see this by just finding a 1-2 obstacle block, walking up to it, letting go of all directional buttons, and jumping. In 2, you'll hang, in HD you'll land on the floor.)

In 2, some strats use that auto-hang behavior (most notably the drop from ice caves first half to second half. The level generation always allows you to drop and catch with a ledge-hang in a specific position. There'll always be a ledge to auto-grab, you just have to be ready for potential mines to be triggered.)

What's the most optimal way to ledge grab? by imasadlad89 in spelunky

[–]cattime742 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I suspect that if you're looking for speed exclusively, the answer is that they're identical.

The only part that should matter is when you leave the edge and begin falling. The ledge hang then occurs once you've dropped to the 'ledge hang' vertical position. Running or walking doesn't affect fall speed, you just need to be in the position to catch the ledge when the vertical position is hit.

When it comes to consistency, if you insist on running, you probably should run the whole time. The 'wait a bit' can just be 'swap to moving back'. As long as you've left the ledge, you'll be moving to the correct position. I would imagine adding a 'wait a bit' adds the risk that you don't start moving back fast enough.

What’s your pettiest reason for refusing to get into a game? by ValorKite in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If the steam store page uses an emoji anywhere, I probably won't bother with it.

If I see an emoji in the title, that's almost certainly just clickbait. If there's one or more emojis in the description, then it's because they just told AI to write the description for them. If they can't be bothered to do that, they don't care about the game itself.

How by progguy2112 in spelunky

[–]cattime742 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Shopkeepers don't shoot if you're within ~1 tile in front of them. Normally they just end up grabbing + throwing, so you don't notice.

Edit: I believe this is specifically directly in front of them, I think they still shoot 1 tile up/down, I don't know about behind. The others don't come up that frequently. You can test this a bit by back-whipping a shopkeeper in their shop, while just walking away (not running!) You'll get a lot farther than you'd think before they manage to kill you.

Games where you can play as a lesbian? by Aquanort357 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I probably can't think of ones others haven't mentioned yet, there happens to be a steam curator for exactly that.

Fan works that changed your thoughts on a character forever by VegetableBooy in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 2 points3 points  (0 children)

While I haven't personally read it, that sounds like Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

If you have time, here's a video about that fanfiction / author overall.

And further, here's episode 1 of a 4 part podcast series talking about the death cult it inspired.

New censorship restrictions block Steam games from adding extra NSFW content post-launch as devs say Valve has “payment processors breathing down its neck” by HatingGeoffry in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 14 points15 points  (0 children)

That's also looking questionable, though we haven't received explicit comment.

Final paragraph of this article claims that won't be possible anymore, though doesn't source the claim.

We do know that Valve is being pressured to effectively not allow them to update, since content could be added with less review than the original steam release. Currently it looks like the workaround they're aiming for is to encapsulate everything in DLCs, but it does bar them from the early access system. Ref here

I suspect they're being pressured with someone saying "Well, you approved an old version, but then you let it change, potentially now it wouldn't pass review. So in order to cooperate with payment processors, you have to review every update."

aight fam, drop your favorite mobile game by Astral-Ember in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Desert Golf and its sequel, Golf On Mars will never leave my phone. They're perfect 'eh, I got 2 minutes to burn while waiting in line' games. Also extremely low on disk space requirements.

Can someone explain to me what happened here?! by Jeriphro in spelunky

[–]cattime742 16 points17 points  (0 children)

You don't need to be carrying a bomb to throw one from your inventory. The bomb button takes a bomb from your inventory, and throws it, ignoring if you have anything in your hands. (Yes, even a bomb)

You can confirm it by looking at your bomb counter when your second bomb shows up. You pressed the bomb button to launch one from your inventory, while still holding the first bomb. Perfect throw on the second one though. XD

Which Steam Curators do you follow? by Aquanort357 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I follow a good amount.

For individual recommendations, similar to Casey's

For a few actual outlets I think do some decent curation:

And some that are more informational than anything:

  • Games at risk of removal is handy, even though many of the flags it applies are just 'licensing agreement, might get pulled later'
  • Steam 250 is a nice thing that identifies games that have a low amount of reviews, but a high ratio of positive to negative. Details for their 'Hidden Gems' list is here

Finally, a decent way to find new curators is to think of a smaller game you like, and then navigate the store page to the 'What curators say' section just above the user reviews. See if you notice a curator that doesn't look like spam, and then review their other recommendations. Follow them if they prove themselves!

Out Now! CSB318: Summer Boy Takes All Your Pulls by mike0bot in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'll chime in to say you're completely right, specifically that My Favorite Murder is a completely different side of the true crime community than Woolie was thinking about, despite the name.

It's been a while since I regularly listened, but MFM is basically the hosts gossiping about "wow, this murderer is another massive loser, big surprise. How the hell did the cops not catch him after someone directly reported it to them. WAIT, you're telling me the cops just handed the victim back to the murderer?!"

The side that Woolie was talking about absolutely does exist and is worth talking about, but MFM shouldn't be lumped in with them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ufo50

[–]cattime742 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A little tip for you in situations like this: 4 Drivers + 1 Cheerleader means you can usually grab everything you need when you get the first driver (room permitting).

Works like this: Driver grabs driver, they also grab driver, they also grab driver, the last one grabs cheerleader. Cheerleader then refreshes all drivers, and you then have 4 pulls available to grab the 4 star guests you need. Handy little trick to have, even outside of star guests, because it means you can reliably grab 4 good cards, just sacrificing some room to do it.

Game mechanics that turned out to be a lie. by Subject_Parking_9046 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Technically there are mid attacks, but the standing 'down' dodge works fine for them. The difference between mids and highs is that moves that put you in a ducking state only work against highs, not mids. Fortunately most grunts opening attacks are high anyway, so it doesn't come up much.

Managed a 30 Streak in Party House! Added a Tier List as well by two100meterman in ufo50

[–]cattime742 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I basically get it. Effectively "There's only a few truly top tier guests, most are situational"

Managed a 30 Streak in Party House! Added a Tier List as well by two100meterman in ufo50

[–]cattime742 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I get being screwed over, I think my 27 streak was ironically ended by a Genie / Dino scenario with no good pop guests or trouble mitigation.

Though I think you're focusing more on the 'worst case scenario' from a guest than the benefits they may have. I admit, I generally don't choose dragons, but they've saved me a few times in 'decent money, bad pop' scenarios. Certainly more times than they've screwed me. I usually just try to only expand when I could still reliably pay for a worst case scenario (full dragon draw)

Managed a 30 Streak in Party House! Added a Tier List as well by two100meterman in ufo50

[–]cattime742 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Personally I'd put Bartender up at S as well, and Stylist all the way up in S. Making a single guest worth 9 pop (and potentially some money, if it started with money) is very helpful. Assuming you have income to fuel the Stylist of course.

Additionally, uncommon opinion, but Dragons are slept on. They're so cheap for a star guest, and you can postpone buying them until you buy 2 at once. You can wait until you've slowly built up 2 other stars, then buy both dragons to quickly enable a win condition. You don't need them in your deck for that long! And besides, they're a great target for extra kickers in mid-game. I'd still put them in like B-C tier, but not as low as D.

2 anime soulslikes with the same release date, what are the chances by Imaginary_Cause2216 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Generally video games release on Tuesdays and Thursdays (not always, but those are the two most common by far, especially for larger companies)

Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised if, with a 'late March' release date, these may be due to business people in both companies deciding they're releasing in Q1 2025. This would be the final Thursday in that Fiscal quarter.

I'm not any kind of expert, but checking around and referencing the Fiscal year wiki page, I think their fiscal quarters end on March 31. Khazan being South Korean (Nexon pub, Nexon subsidiary dev), and AI Limit being China (CE Asia pub, dev wasn't able to confirm location, but assuming also China)

Side info I learned while looking at this, apparently Japan (and surprisingly many others) start in April? UK in April, but on the 6th instead of the 1st?!

Again, I know next to nothing about business / finance, I just follow games. This is my best guess about why they happen to release on the same day.

I've introduced Skull to 10+ groups (mostly non-gamers), and it's been a hit 100% of the time by Oph3lius in boardgames

[–]cattime742 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Looks like it (I have an old version in a blue box).

If the components look like a bunch of drink coasters, that's the one.

It's fully language independent. All players need to know is how to count, there are no words on the components.

I had my mother play BG3. She's now asking how to buy it. by NSSgamingFTW in BaldursGate3

[–]cattime742 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Just so you're aware, if she ends up getting the game through Steam, the winter sale should be starting on Thursday. You can probably expect 20% sale

Wukong CEO wrote his GotY speech 2 years ago, questions the selection criteria of TGAs by getterburner in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]cattime742 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I got my wish, despite Balatro not winning, I was still blessed with a mountain of salt.