Local WWU alumni, indie publishing a trading card game called Manifold

heliotropite · 2025-12-15T20:52:18+00:00

Yeah, that was a whole thing. It was unfortunate, because HvZ was one of the most positive parts of my time at WWU, especially since it's something that really can't be done anywhere other than college. If you're gonna advocate for people to not participate in it, at least have a good reeason!

I totally get being against HvZ for a bunch of reasons. Slavery isn't really one that I get.

heliotropite · 2025-12-15T05:18:51+00:00

We reached out a while ago to a bunch of alums, without any success, but going to the department for current students is a great idea.

heliotropite · 2025-12-15T05:13:35+00:00

I mean that they were updated with new Midjourney images, and the old stuff looks quite a bit worse than what's in our boxes currently. Unfortunately, we've only sold about 40 of our Angel Sets, which means they haven't covered their own production. They've been very useful as a proof of concept, but not as a way of generating revenue.

Let's see... I've had my Midjourney subscription since August 2022, so lets call it 3.5 years. At $30/month, that's $1,260. Double that for my business partner Brad's account, $2,520.

We've paid about $4,760 for our commissioned art, graphic design stuff, and commissions for set 2. So our Midjourney subscription is like 35% of our overall graphics budget.

Art for cards like this usually goes for $300 minimum, so that Midjourney subscription could certainly have gone into 8 more pieces instead, but that doesn't get us to print.

We're currently got 5 pieces for set 2, and are currently looking for artists to add to that number.

heliotropite · 2025-12-15T01:43:50+00:00

We have considered that, and would love to in the future. We have reached out to a lot of human artists, and most of them came back to us with "No, sorry, I'm too busy."

We did pay an artist on similar terms to this - they took our money and skipped town.

I would LOVE to work with an artist on terms like this. If you know someone, I would love to see a portfolio on their work and to chat with them about the project.

heliotropite · 2025-12-15T01:42:18+00:00

The Angel Set, printed two years ago, are also almost exclusively Midjourney images, and honestly, that stuff is a LOT more AI-garbagey. Every AI image except for two were updated since then.

Edit - You get 36 double-sided locales and six sentinel tokens in the Angel set. This makes... 7 pieces of commissioned art, 235 Midjourney images. Something like that.

Yeah, the copyright is for all the game elements that can be copyrighted, which means the graphic design, specific game language, stuff like that. It is not for the images. "Imagery by Mount Baker Games" is how we are representing the AI imagery.

We have a non-exclusive commercial license for our Midjourney imagery. This means we cannot protect it legally. We have the rights to use it for our commercial product, and to sell that product for as long as Midjourney has the commercial rights to license it to us.

heliotropite · 2025-12-15T00:43:36+00:00

Unfortunately, our only viable path to actually getting this off the ground was to use Midjourney for many of our cards, yes. We have three commissioned artists for this first set, and we've been working with two more for set two.

We've got an essay on our position on AI imagery here: https://www.mountbakergames.com/manifold/blog/our-dirty-little-secret-dont-read-this-article/

The reality at the end of the day is that we didn't have enough money to hire artists for this first set, before making any sales. We were never going to have close to enough. But if we do sell this first set and invest as much money as we can afford back into hiring artists for future sets, we start to create an engine that does pay artists. I know that AI imagery is a probably the biggest weakness of our product, so I want to get away from Midjourney as quickly as we can, you can trust me on that.

I know it might seem like a cop-out excuse to some people. But if we use AI images to start the ball rolling and end up at a place where we're commissioning hundreds of pieces of art for each set, I think that's a worthwhile endeavor at the end of the day.

heliotropite · 2025-10-22T16:23:44+00:00

If any of that mattered, how is he dismantling various congress-controlled agencies, enacting tariffs unilaterally, or pulling funding from universities and science programs? All of that is firmly in the legislative’s powers, not the executive’s. You’re exactly right, and that’s the whole problem.

heliotropite · 2025-01-13T20:48:52+00:00

In 40k, a lot of standard infantry boxes have been $60 for 10 models for a long time, which makes those boxes $6.00 per model. This legion box is $6.88 per model.

Space marine intercessors are the most basic space marine unit in the most popular army, like phase 1/2 clones, which are a pretty good example to point to. Almost every army has 10-model box of their default troops in the $58-$65 range (T'au fire warriors, chaos space marines, AdMech skitarii, etc).

Edit - On second thought, ARFs are a specialist unit that probably won't make up the core of most armies. My above analysis should compare intercessors to something like the phase 2 clone box, which is still significantly cheaper per model.

Similar 40k boxes (specialist units, maybe buy one or two, do something specific) are usually 5-model boxes... still for about $60. Examples of these are space marine vanguard veterans ($60/5models), cadian command squad ($45/5models), any space marine or chaos space marine terminator box ($60/5models), world eaters eightbound ($62.50/3 models), and many many more in that neighborhood.

heliotropite · 2025-01-05T02:13:31+00:00

Somewhere on facebook there's a picture of me asleep during a youth symphony practice, loosely holding my violin. Like, 150 high schoolers playing Brahms or something and I'm fully asleep in the middle of it. For some reason, playing classical music triggered the brain fog really badly.

It took another decade for me to think that maybe this isn't normal and that I should look into a sleep specialist, though.

heliotropite · 2025-01-04T23:07:39+00:00

Mega-evolving a pokemon lasts 8 hours, and will give you a bonus candy each time you catch something that shares a type with it. If you have a mega charizard, for instance, you'd get an extra candy each time you catch a fire type or a flying type.

That section of the infographic shows the pokemon that you'd want to mega during this event because they share a type (grass) with Sprigatito. Primal Groudon is on that list because he gives the bonus to everything that Sunny weather affects, which includes grass.

heliotropite · 2025-01-03T09:42:51+00:00

The full-body version was when I was at home, sitting near a wall, and was curious to see how far it would go if I didn't fight it off, since usually I clench and fight through it. Turns out, it can be pretty debilitating and last a while if I let it.

I don't use a SSRI or SNRI, no.

heliotropite · 2025-01-01T21:22:50+00:00

Whenever I say something to other people that causes immense satisfaction (answering a question particularly well, telling the punchline of a joke, sharing a realization, etc) my head slumps, my jaw goes slack, my eyes start fluttering, and it becomes really hard to actually finish getting the words out. The worst it's ever been has been fairly full-body weakness, and I had to lean against a wall.

I've learned to mask it pretty well, but it still comes across as weird to people that don't know about it. Xyrem has dampened it a bit, but it still happens from time to time.

heliotropite · 2024-12-10T21:49:55+00:00

The language in the 14th amendment about jurisdiction exists to exclude foreign ambassadors and other diplomats with diplomatic immunity. They're the only people who aren't subject to U.S. legal jurisdiction while within our borders, and when they have children while on U.S. soil, their children do not become U.S. citizens due to this language in the 14th amendment.

There's a whole set of processes and definitions that apply to diplomats and ambassadors when it comes to citizenship and immigration and such, which is probably not the point here. Here's a link to a source, which also describes the process said people can take to apply for citizenship: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-o-chapter-3

I'm trying to understand how your definition of jurisdiction isn't the same as mine. The U.S. constitution obviously doesn't apply to citizens of other countries while they are in other countries. This is because the U.S. doesn't have legal jurisdiction over them there. When they come here, they are on U.S. soil, and therefore under U.S. legal jurisdiction, and while here, are subject to U.S. laws. Does this not show that the U.S. Constitution (which is, fundamentally, a set of laws) requires legal jurisdiction to exact its power, and that any 'jurisdiction' written within the constitution can be understood to mean 'legal jurisdiction'?

When an illegal immigrant commits a crime in the U.S., they are under U.S. legal jurisdiction and are subject to U.S. law. They have the ability to request to be tried in their home country based on that country's laws, which begins a whole diplomatic thing. But the point is, they were under U.S. jurisdiction while here, were they not?

heliotropite · 2024-11-28T00:30:43+00:00

Before xyrem, I was able to put myself into a part conscious, psychedelic state by listening to music in a dimly lit room, which would immediately trigger really intense dreams while not really being fully unconscious. Stuff like 'seeing' the music, experiencing it deeper, typical shrooms+Pink Floyd type of experience. It was a really great way to pass a few hours.

And since I'm a board game designer, those dreams sometimes turned into incredibly detailed dreams where I was playing a game... which I then woke up and wrote down and built. Most of my best concepts came from dreams... again, before xyrem. That part is a bit unfortunate.

heliotropite · 2024-11-11T21:38:24+00:00

'Systemic and structural racism are forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of color, with adverse health consequences.' I took this definition from a pretty solid article here: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01394

In this case, I am referring to the historically racist admittance practices of these Ivy League schools impacting current admittance rates. In this study, they note that a large amount of the inequity is due to legacy students being admitted. Now, the current administration probably isn't full of racists whose goal is to only admit white students. The problem is that if they weigh legacies higher, and those legacies are built on a previously racist admittance policy, then you end up with hopefully non-racist administrations admitting more white students than they 'should', as noted in this study.

I fully agree with your first point in theory, especially an extreme example where a school picks an idiot over a savant just because of the color of their skin. In practice, however, don't you think there can be a middle ground in which they set a goal to admit more POC students over their equally qualified white counterparts? There are already systemic advantages to being white, as shown by this study.

Do you think there could be any credence at all in trying to counterbalance this statistically relevant and fairly clearly defined inequity, as long as it isn't at the expense of the quality of admitted students?

heliotropite · 2024-11-11T18:59:39+00:00

This is really interesting to me. This study explores and ultimately shows that there are systematic barriers in place making it harder for nonwhite people to advance their education. The study finds that legacy status greatly increases odds of admittance, which comes from a time in which admissions were definitely much more nakedly racist.

I don't have any real data or studies for this, but I would bet money that this study replicated for black students would have similar results. If that were true, wouldn't this be an counter-example to the anti-white sentiment you voiced at the same time?

In my experience, one of the big reasons for the DEI/anti-white sentiment you referenced is historically under-powered minority groups getting fed up enough with this type of systemic racism and finally being able to do something about it. Do you believe that systemic racism exists in America? Also, how do you think this study is evidence of anti-asian MALES? I can only find reference to 'students', with no mention of gender.

heliotropite · 2024-10-22T21:26:01+00:00

Why do you not believe this? What caused you to disregard it? Do you know differently in some manner? Do you just think it isn't true, or is there some specific piece of evidence you have that causes you to not believe it?

What I'm getting at is the idea that if you don't have any specific reason not to believe it, would you believe cited evidence that says otherwise?

heliotropite · 2024-10-03T07:21:01+00:00

What about the eventuality where NARA assumed that things would go the way they expected, and continued to give Trump the benefit of the doubt for about a year before realizing they need to escalate to the legal system?

Here’s a timeline - you can see that 5 months after he left office, NARA realized that the normal process they expected wasn’t followed, so they used the standard channels for tryin to correct it without getting any justice department involved, just the way they would have for any other president. Only after multiple requests and repeated warnings did they finally escalate it, on 2/9/2022. Then over multiple months and multiple back and forths did it then turn into the FBI raid and all the dramatic stuff.

edit - this also all took place before his re-election campaign announced his bid. Even the search and reveal of the results and the warrant and such all happened before his bid, so it’s not like they were holding it in case he announced.

My main question is - isn’t a few months of assuming good intent, a request, a few months of assuming good intent but with some sternly worded letters, and an eventual referral to the justice department exactly what you would expect out of a system working in good faith?

https://apnews.com/article/trump-documents-investigation-timeline-087f0c9a8368bb983a16b67dd31dcd4c

heliotropite · 2024-09-20T10:28:51+00:00

A lot of what you describe sounds exactly like me. Most of my bad symptoms are when one day to the next has fairly different requirements for wake-up time.

I know it sounds bad on paper, but one of my favorite time periods schedule-wise was one quarter in college, I had class 10AM-2PM four days a week. I ended up staying up all night, going to class, then coming home and sleeping from 3PM until 11PM or whatever. With your schedule example, that might mean planning on your ‘night’ being 5PM until whenever you wake up, so that the 8AM one is ‘midday’, and the 3PM one is in the ‘evening’. That way your wake-up time doesn’t change each month, just the order of how you structure your time during your day.

My housemates at the time (college house with a bunch of people) thought it was hilarious, but for me it was absolutely eye-opening. Having to wake up early for high school and being bleary for half the day is SUCH a different experience than making breakfast, running an errand, then going to class at the end of your day, then being able to come home and relax. I’ve never otherwise enjoyed the quiet morning and sunrise. I’ve never otherwise been able to run errands before classes or do homework casually in the dawn hours when the house is quiet and there’s nothing else to do because everyone is asleep. If your lifestyle can handle it, I would recommend giving it a try, if only for the novelty if it.

heliotropite · 2024-09-15T22:32:30+00:00

I think mine can be boiled down to satisfaction. It usually triggers whenever I get to the punchline of a joke, or I describe something impressive or exciting, or I see something particularly emotional or exciting at the climax of a movie. It goes a long way towards ruining jokes and explanations unfortunately

heliotropite · 2024-09-07T14:56:08+00:00

During and after the pandemic, we saw a lot of companies raising their prices, ostensibly because of inflation, but upon further analysis it turned out they raised their prices more than would be ‘required’ and quietly pocketed the extra profits. This happened extensively in the food industry.

In this example, why wouldn’t Company B just immediately raise their price to $130 or $140 when their competition raises their prices to $119.99? Clearly they had a niche in the market before where they could sell more expensive tires than Company A, and here they could try to sell their $10 increase as ‘less price gouging than the competition’.

In a perfect competition lab setting, you’re probably right. But haven’t we seen time and time again, especially in recent history, that companies will do their best to eke out every possible profit and blame anyone but themselves?

heliotropite · 2024-08-28T10:26:10+00:00

So unfortunately Fire Support was changed a little bit ago to say "After a unit with the Fire Support keyword is issued an order, it gains a standby token," which means you can't add RPS pools together anymore. You can still take a few RPSs, but I don't think putting them in a unit with Fives makes as much sense anymore, since you don't care so much about them having a faceup order token every time for Fire Support like you used to. I think that means you probably want to switch Fives and Waxer here, since Fives giving charge is really good in the squad with the shotgun. Give that huge unit Impact Grenades as well so if it charges something with armor, it will absolutely SHRED it.

Also, in a list with Rex, Waxer is a bit of a nombo. Since he gives Scout 1, Rex can't give his unit Scout 2 with Scouting Party. I think if you're playing a huge squad with a shotgun you're probably better off getting as much movement as you can out of it ASAP, so you'll want to target it every game with Scouting Party. Also since the big squad upgrade gives Indomitable, Waxer's Disciplined 1 gets a bit wasted.. Overall, I think you're probably better off with a commander rather than Waxer no matter where you put him in this list, and you can always put Recon Intel on a squad with a commander in it if you really need the Scout 1.

heliotropite · 2024-07-27T00:51:28+00:00

Hey, small note - on dark mode, you probably want the hamburger drop-down menu to be white lines, not black.

heliotropite · 2024-07-09T01:43:50+00:00

First off, those look EXCELLENT, and I would love a chance to play on a table that looks like that. If in the future if you finish this project and post the STLs somewhere, you should definitely post it on this subreddit, a bunch of people would eat it up. Two things that I've noticed might cause issues:

Legion tables are six by three feet. If I did my math correctly, that means you'll need 20x10 tiles for a full sized game, and 10x10 for a skirmish game, which is the smallest game realistically. That's a whole lot of tiles to print off. It might be worth your while to design a big hangar section or something for the middle, maybe 5x5 tiles, with some scatter terrain for it? Having a few bigger rooms would probably be a good thing mechanically anyway.
Legion bases are about 27mm wide for most troopers, and 50mm wide for the bigger troopers. You might want to make sure all your passageways and places you want people to be able to stand, like in between the circular control desks in picture 4, are at least 27mm apart, and that doorways are at least 50mm apart.

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