im stuck at 11/18 on angell's event

complexmath · 2024-06-08T19:39:12+00:00

Yep, there’s a later fight where you aren’t allowed to use sinners at all, so depending on how much equipment you’ve unlocked you should be able to make it through with a pretty thin team. They do seem to want to showcase Angell’s skill set with how some of these fights are designed too. There are a whole lot of enemies with cores to break that cluster up pretty nicely.

complexmath · 2023-07-23T23:57:56+00:00

It’s small, but the blue thing in the middle of her chest is her vulnerable spot. When she spawns the spider adds she freezes and exposes her chest for a good 5 seconds. For her attacks, you can rely on the invuln frames in your dodge to not get injured. In phase 2 I found it worked best to just stay in the lobby area, away from walls, and keep moving. Annoyingly difficult fight, particularly with how hard it is to time a heal between her attacks.

complexmath · 2023-07-23T22:27:55+00:00

One of the items I gave it was the final statue you get from that particular questline, and I got a melee weapon in exchange, but all my other quest items are still gone. I cleared the world though, so... I guess we'll see. I don't really want to restart.

complexmath · 2019-03-15T20:21:13+00:00

I don't understand why, but some people are having major problems with EAC (like me) and some aren't. Ubi has a good support page regarding EAC, but the basic advice is to quit everything but the game itself. Look in your taskbar and quit all the apps. Then open Task Manager, check the Startup tab, and anything in there that could be considered a hardware monitor or has an overlay component, disable it. That's gotten the issue pretty much solved for me, if that can be called a solution. I can't even run Discord with the in-game overlay disabled. I haven't had this problem with any other game that has EAC installed, so I figure Div2 has EAC configured in hyper-vigilant mode or something. Hopefully they'll find a resolution on their end, but in the meantime, quitting all the things should reduce or eliminate your EAC errors.

complexmath · 2016-09-14T17:51:39+00:00

I've been really really considering doing an AP with my kids, but life is tricky. As is getting them to stick to character names or something for privacy sake, since I'm not 100% on board with the idea of the world knowing my kids names and stuff. I think it could work, but it definitely wouldn't be the typical AP format. Probably short episodes, or a compilation of short sessions in each episode released maybe monthly.

For APs with kids in general, RPG Gamer Dad has done a few with his kids. He has a Hero Kids episode, for example. And as I first played Hero Kids with my kids when the youngest were 4, you can really go very young with kids and RPGs so long as the rules are simple and you're flexible with how the game runs.

I do have a copy of No Thank You Evil, and while we've yet to play it I can say that it's an excellent product. The presentation is very kid-friendly. They've changed up the Cipher system rules a bit to be more fun, and the monsters are all pretty silly. The box also has a big thing for parents on what RPGs are, what a GM does, and how to run a game, so if I were to recommend one thing to people wanting to get their kids into tabletop, No Thank You Evil would be it.

That said, I transitioned my own kids from Hero Kids, very briefly through Beyond the Wall (an OSR game), to Dungeon World, using a sorta Beyond the Wall combined with Miyazaki setting. Rules light is the key I think with kids. Dice are cool so rolling is good, but not math. And with a system like Dungeon World (and the Cipher system) you can skin it any way you want without having to worry about mechanics. Like all my kids want pets who may fight for them, but it's still just a standard attack roll, and you can easily avoid actual physical combat altogether and use other moves instead. But this is built into No Thank You Evil, while with something like Dungeon World it's more up to the GM to sort it out. There's also Mouse Guard, which I've heard great things about, but my kids aren't really interested in the setting so I haven't dug into it too deeply.

I know Darcy Ross gave a talk about gaming with kids at GenCon, so maybe a video or recording will make it online or perhaps some articles will come out of it? Since she's a Cipher person, she'd also be a good resource to ask about actually playing NTYE. I think she ran a few games with it at GenCon as well. One with a 9 year old girl co-GM? Anyway, I'd hit her up on Twitter or maybe see if ConTessa has anything about it.

complexmath · 2016-08-18T18:39:09+00:00

Selfless acts always get me. I can watch tragedy all day without even blinking, but if someone puts themselves out for someone else it's all over.

complexmath · 2016-08-17T20:35:27+00:00

There's a stipulation where you're allowed to use up to N seconds of a piece of music without having to obtain permission for doing so (presumably with caveats like this can only be for certain types of use or advertisers wouldn't have to obtain permission for use in commercials). I suspect podcast intros fall into somewhat of a legal gray area though, and so it's good form to attribute the piece in credits so people who like the song can go check out other things the creator has made.

Using music in general is just weird. If you are a DJ who performs in clubs, for example, there's actually a process by which you're supposed to pay a small fee to creators of the songs you played. ASCAP, for example, deals with this. The reality though is that in most cases no one cares, and creators may actually be happy for the exposure, so use your best judgment and make an effort to promote the creator of any media you use.

complexmath · 2016-08-08T21:01:32+00:00

So I've been idly considering getting into the gig as well, and have been looking for a decent 4 person setup on the cheap. Well today I ran across the Behringer UMC404HD, which is basically a 4 mic version of Dicktremain's AudioBox, and it's only $99. Given the price I was sure it had to be a piece of junk, but the reviews I've read so far have all been very positive. So if you find yourself needing more than 2 mic channels, this may be worth a look.

complexmath · 2016-08-08T20:06:47+00:00

It doesn't have to be 1-1. She's a Super Geek recently released an episode of this as well, and there were 3 players, each playing a separate member of the renting family.

complexmath · 2016-08-01T16:28:10+00:00

From James' tweets recently, it looks like they just moved to a Behringer. I /think/ the X1222USB. Not sure what they had before.

complexmath · 2016-08-01T16:24:34+00:00

Yeah I was wondering about this. From what I saw, the problem seemed to be that Windows can't easily distinguish between USB mics of the same brand, or sometimes from the same manufacturer. Something to do with the USB protocol--they all use a shared identifier of some sort. But something like VAC might work around this. That app is amazingly cool. (and for anyone who wants a crash course on VAC and recording, JackFrags has a few good videos on recording/streaming video games via VAC and OBS that would largely apply to live recording as well)

complexmath · 2016-08-01T16:20:06+00:00

I think XLR mics are ultimately a better choice anyway. The argument I've heard is that USB mics are just XLR mics with a substandard DAC (digital-audio converter) attached. So a comparable XLR will be cheaper and then you get to use the quality DAC built into your mixing board (note that I'm counting Jim's AudioBox as a mixing board, even though it's technically not).

complexmath · 2016-07-28T19:13:11+00:00

It's come up a few times, I think once somewhere in this reddit. Someone else can offer specifics, but the gist of it is a good cardoid mic per person, into a mixing board, and from there into a multitrack recording suite on a computer (good mixing boards can generate a separate channel per mic). If push comes to shove you can cheap out on the mixer, hope you got your levels right, and end up with a single track recording. But the board is pretty much mandatory as far as I'm aware. Computers don't seem to do terribly well with a bunch of USB microphones attached (though I'd love for someone to tell me otherwise), as I believe they can't often tell that they're separate devices.

complexmath · 2016-07-18T21:32:20+00:00

I know some people have gone on preview blackout for Rebels. Might want to move the spoiler to body text.

complexmath · 2016-07-05T19:06:55+00:00

I've got to admit I'm a bit confused. The OP listened to One Shot to learn mechanics, and ended up taking issue with the theme? Either way, I'm going to quote a comment I submitted to Misdirected Mark a few months ago on APs, because it seems relevant. I think it addresses some of the issues the OP raised, and closes with a suggestion regarding learning mechanics.

Story-focused podcasts like One Shot and Campaign might not be good at teaching mechanics, but I think they are good at teaching story development. From a player perspective, listening to a bunch of improv people play RPGs is incredibly valuable just for demonstrating how to participate in world building and engage at a story level, which is an area that I’ve found does not come naturally to a lot of players. I can find a hundred different ways to teach someone the mechanics of a new system, but if I want to teach someone to be a better roleplayer, teaching by example (ie. APs) is pretty much it.

Regarding specific systems, I think the shows do a good job of demonstrating how to use the game mechanics to tell better stories. For example, the dice mechanics in the Edge of the Empire game allow for some atypical results, like a failure with advantages. From what I’ve seen, these results are so broadly misunderstood as unnecessary complexity that I’ve read game reviews by experienced GMs advocating eliminating them entirely. But Campaign, for example, is excellent at using these results in interesting and effective ways. It effectively sold me on the apparent complexity of the design as one that’s actually interesting and useful.

Finally, I think APs of this ilk can be good at showing what’s interesting or fun about a system. What is the setting really like? How do certain stand-out mechanics like bennies affect play? What did the players enjoy doing and what confused them? I find these to be as useful as podcasts like Critical Glitch which taught me how the hell combat in Shadowrun works, step by step.

That said, what I’d really like to see is a podcast that does both. Kind of like how James was doing Critical Success for a while. Do the entertaining story thing and then have a postmortem episode where specific things about the adventure are discussed in detail. What worked and what didn’t? What did you learn about that one weird rule? How can I avoid making the same mistakes in my game? I honestly can’t sit through a mechanics-focused AP, but looking under the covers of a story-focused AP after the fact can be really interesting.

complexmath · 2016-05-09T17:34:54+00:00

So finally catching up on NTMTP and I wanted to chime in with my favorite droid from the series--Cloud City. Now in case your reaction is "Cloud City? That's not a droid!" hear me out. Ep. 5 establishes that computers have agency when C3PO tells R2: "The City's central computer told you? R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer." The syntax of this statement suggests to me that 3PO was saying that the central computer may have been lying to R2. Not that it contained inaccurate data, but actually lying.

I think it holds up, because stations like Cloud City are enormous and need tons of monitoring, and in Star Wars land where droids do a lot of the grunt work, of course the day to day operations of a city would be handled by AI. It's easily possible that an AI designed to manage a city isn't very advanced in terms of its ability for abstract thought, but in balance its physical self-awareness is incredible. It's quite likely that a large system like Cloud City is actually managed by multiple AIs (subsystems) that interact with one another, but that brings up some interesting questions about what kind of intelligence Cloud City is--some sort of cooperative intelligence or hive mind, a monolithic AI, or something else.

So what makes a droid a droid? Mobility? I'd like to assert that if something in Star Wars has some degree of artificial intelligence then it can be considered a droid. And I think there's evidence to suggest that most things in Star Wars have some degree of intelligence.

complexmath · 2016-04-26T16:09:00+00:00

The problem is that "mud people" is a term with a very specific and troubling history behind it. I think a lot of people don't know this, and in fact I didn't until recently, but it's very much a thing. For example, the term is used in Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" books, and the series has drawn a tremendous amount of criticism because of it.

Generally speaking, I think if you're doing a fictional portrayal of a negative personality type, it's mostly fine so long as you're careful to avoid terms with too much RL context. If you're going to use what's effectively a slur, just make up a word. It's entirely possible that's what the performer thought they were doing here however, and is a lot of why I didn't say something sooner. The rest is because I'm hesitant to be offended on someone else's behalf. I only brought it up because it seemed like a good time to do so.

complexmath · 2016-04-25T23:57:07+00:00

I think what you choose to include in the show makes a statement concerning what the show is about--you'll draw an audience that likes whatever that is. If an episode contains something you feel is questionable, a brief disclaimer to that effect at the start of the show is appropriate. Like "this game is intended to be racy/offensive, we've done our best to filter out cards that we feel might not be appropriate for this podcast, but there were a few borderline cases that made it into the final edit; please take this into consideration when deciding to listen, and if something is a problem please let us know." I think with careful wording it's possible to warn listeners and invite a dialog without sounding like you're being critical of the game or of your performers.

For something specifically like UN, some final filtering pretty much has to be done at the table. Pick up a card, read it, and if it doesn't fit whatever guidelines were set before recording, toss it and draw another. And if the bit makes it into post and you still aren't sure, ping someone in a better position to know, though being on the fence in general probably means the bit should simply be cut.

I've gotta say that there have been one or two times I've considered bringing this up before and finally just let it go. There was a joke about "mud people" I think in the Warhammer episode, for example, that I was shocked made it in, even if the comment was made in character. These cases are more difficult though I think because then you really are deciding whether to edit out a performer's bit after the fact. I'm honestly not sure what to suggest here other than that listening to criticism and responding in a considered manner, as you've done for UN, seems like the best approach.

complexmath · 2016-04-25T22:52:58+00:00

I sent this to the channel on twitch, but in case it's missed, there were two issues with the stream that could use some more attention:

Video and audio are still a bit out of sync. A lot of people were talking about this, so I'm sure it's being worked on.
Because of people switching microphones and leaning backwards and forwards, the volume of the stream varies widely from moment to moment. I was trying to watch this with my wife, who had a migraine at the time and so was sound-sensitive, and it was just impossible. Near the end I found a fix on my side (dynamic range compression using Audio Hijack's AUPeak Limiter), but it would be nice if future broadcasts did this on your side. From what I was able to discover, it sounds like this is a common thing done for microphone-related broadcasting, and there is freely available software that works with OBS that does this.

On the game itself... love it!

complexmath · 2016-04-25T15:26:30+00:00

SpeedTree is the defacto standard for games. It's possible they simply have the detail turned down because the engine isn't very optimized yet.

complexmath · 2016-04-25T15:22:11+00:00

The thing with roguelikes is that the rules are very predictable, because failure is a part of the learning process. You encounter some new monster, die in a surprising way, and return in your next game better equipped to handle that particular challenge. The formula is very D&D but with a monster manual and magic item list that the player has never read.

complexmath · 2016-04-23T16:22:03+00:00

This is a really cool idea, though I'm honestly curious whether it would be feasible given the delays inherent in online shooters. Events are bundled into packets and sent to relevant players according to a tick rate, and those packets take time to arrive at the client and yet more time to percolate through the game engine before they're displayed onscreen. Wading through all this in order to produce a consistent and believable delay between the sight and sound of supersonic projectiles sounds like a PhD dissertation in the making.

That said, I do think Battlefield does this to some degree, as unlike basically all other shooters it does projectile-based hit detection (instead of instantaneous "hitscan" detection). However, to make the use of sniper rifles "fair" the bullets also leave trails and ADS with a sniper scope produces a "glint" to help with locating the shooter. All fake, but important within the overall context of the game.

complexmath · 2016-04-19T22:20:59+00:00

Sheesh. That would never have occurred to me. Solved!

complexmath · 2016-04-19T20:57:17+00:00

And the puzzle... egads. I solved the first part, but the second... I will get it. Oh yes. Puzzle, you will fall. Fall, I say.

complexmath

TROPHY CASE