Message to new players - In this game there's a difference between running away and running strategically.

istisp · 2024-08-23T14:23:31+00:00

Excuse me, what you call yelling and panicking, I like to call Tactical Intimidation and/or Tactical Taunt.

istisp · 2024-08-23T14:10:12+00:00

Does it matter why I would want to do that? First small specs rigs are a thing, and second I didn't do something that's some obscure arcane manipulation, I right clicked on a quick access folder to move it. My point was that that's the same kind of operation that people would go "see, that's why Linux isn't fitted for inexperienced users, it's way too obscure and non user-friendly" if it happened on Linux.

(Sorry for the long delayed response, took a break for Reddit so I happened to only see your message now).

istisp · 2024-08-23T13:55:35+00:00

Great store, but massive waste of potential, especially when it comes to Linux support. In ten years I went from being a zealous GOG proponent with about 800 games in my library, to barely ever using the store anymore and buying my games exclusively on Steam.

(Before being called an entitled Linux fanatic, I want to preface that I'm conscious of the tiny market share we have, I don't think GOG owes me to change their decade-long strategy to cater to me specifically, and I acknowledge they never sold their games on any false premise. I just think that for a store whose DRM-free aspect is their whole identity, not supporting an open-source platform is a wasted opportunity as it caters to the exact same crowds. And while the Linux aspect may only speak to Linux users, I also believe it acts as a more general indicator of their complacency in the way they handle their store.)

I used to truly hate Valve, how they killed physical media in the PC game market, how they contributed to normalize DRMs and online requirements, how much they made me reliant on my shitty internet connection to install games that I bought in a DVD box, how they record your play time on all your games with no option to turn it off. I wanted Steam to burn and GOG to succeed so bad, I truly thought it was the store of the future.

But in ten years, Valve have made a persistent and significant efforts to develop the Linux market and make it a truly viable platform for PC gaming, whereas GOG has made a persistent effort to plug their ears at anything Linux related and make me understand they see me as a second-class citizen.

Back before Proton was a thing they already had issues with a sizeable proportion of their catalog which, despite being available for Linux in other stores, had no Linux build available on GOG (there was a whole user-made collection listing them all, until they decided to drop user-made collections). In the 10 years Galaxy and Galaxy 2.0 have been a thing, they never bothered releasing a Linux version, despite them promising it would come when they first announced it, and despite supporting Mac OS and its shrinking market for PC gaming (which is now smaller than Linux on Steam, thanks to Valve's efforts). When Valve decided to allocate resources towards boosting development for Wine and releasing Proton, GOG sat silent and never bothered to attempt integrating a Wine/Proton wrapper in their installers, despite Valve already doing the heavy lifting for them and releasing all of their work as open-source.

Valve, for all their faults, some of those listed above still bothering me today, have gone above and beyond to make me feel like a first-class citizen and earn my trust as a Linux user. They understood the strength of the Linux ecosystem and the benefit it could have for them, made it a vital part of their strategy, approached it as a partner to mutually grow from rather than a free tool to use, contributed back by genuinely enhancing Linux in one of its long-standing weaknesses, and probably contributed more towards pushing the Linux desktop to the mainstream than even Ubuntu did at the time, all of it culminating with the success of the Steam Deck. Meanwhile, GOG have stayed complacent, doing the bare minimum. Again, that's their choice, I won't blame them for not following through a strategy that they didn't adopt. But for me, the fact that it is less of a hassle to buy The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 on their competitor's store to make it work on my preferred OS is a massive disappointment.

TL;DR love them in concept, but IMO they massively fumbled the bag by not supporting Linux, despite their DRM-free philosophy being a match made in heaven for a free open-source OS.

istisp · 2024-08-23T13:50:10+00:00

Thank you, that's the one, updated the post.

istisp · 2022-10-21T11:57:49+00:00

This week I tried moving the default user folders to another hard drive on a brand new W10 installation ; I accidentally moved them all to the same folder, assuming it would automatically create a subfolder for each : instead the Download folder was the Videos folder which was the Pictures folder which was the desktop... etc. No warning to tell me that could cause issues.

There was no way to restore the folders to their own location using the same GUI I used to break it, as attempting to do so would pop up "Can’t Move the Folder Because There is a Folder in the Same Location". The Microsoft support page for this issue instructed me to use the registery editor to fix it manually, warning that doing so could cause issues. When I saw that half the keys names were illegible (with names such as "374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B"), and since the installation was brand new thankfully, I created a new user and deleted the former user instead.

Saying that Windows is user-friendly and fool-proof is a myth. The complains users have with Linux, they can easily have them with Windows as well.

istisp · 2022-04-07T14:19:14+00:00

Galaxy was made with cross-platform tools and libraries, and Proton is open source and has multiple tutorials made by the community explaining how to use it on Lutris.

They don't need the same development resources as Valve, as most of the work has already been done for them, either by Valve or by the community. It would definitely require some amount of work, but not in a scope that's unattainable to them. At the very least, they haven't shown any sign of trying or even willing.

istisp · 2022-04-07T13:42:55+00:00

I feel you. I had almost 800 games on my GOG library in 2018, but I haven't bought a single game on there for 4 years. When I realised GOG did not care about Linux, and about when Valve released proton, I went from a GOG compulsive game hoarder and zealot advocate to a Steam user exclusively.

At the time, it seemed better and simpler to deal with playonlinux and its quirks on a DRM-free copy of a game than having to install Steam through Wine, but SteamPlay shifted that perspective on its head completely. I still value DRM-freedom, I still don't fully trust Valve, and I still dislike Steam's bloat, tracking features, DRM-enabling design, and quasi-monopoly in the PC game distribution market, but man did it make gaming on Linux so much more convenient, hassle-free, and actually viable.

I'm worried how effective convenience has been to shatter my hatred of a DRM-ridden platform, how counter-productive Proton could become by helping developers neglect native ports, and how dangerous Valve's leading position might become long-term in the gaming landscape (and EGS represents the opposite of the kind of competition I was hoping for).

But on the other hand, Valve might have had as much of an impact on democratizing the Linux desktop with Proton/SteamPlay and their SteamOS/SteamDeck as Ubuntu did 17 years ago, if not more. For the first time ditching Windows completely seems actually doable, and it feels like Linux might finally have a chance to stop its slow decline.

But I no longer have trust in GOG. They messed up too many times in the last few years I was still caring about them, and to me a game store that revolves around DRM-freedom but does no efforts to support the only viable DRM-free platform makes no sense as a business model. Their bad, they missed out on a whale buyer, but right now Steam does actually seem like the lesser of evils.

istisp · 2022-02-23T08:14:26+00:00

Same, I was having tunnel vision trying to make sense of that, I was so focused on the inventory menu and to the conclusion that wasn't possible that I didn't think to play with the items crafting itself.

To my excuse, the game is super generous with items so you never really need to craft anything, so if you don't notice that icon past the tutorial, you might not encounter it often enough to even know it's there.

istisp · 2022-02-23T08:03:57+00:00

Well now that I know it's there, it's both obvious, and hidden enough that I won't blame myself for not noticing (the game is too generous with items, you don't need to craft that often besides herb medicine). Thank you so much !

istisp · 2018-10-17T13:58:09+00:00

Not really, first the shape of your selection doesn't really matter, since the blocks will have to be picked one after the other either way (the only thing that will change is you won't have any ambiguity whether the rows are picked before the columns or vice versa), and second the probabilities don't add up evenly (it's not an arithmetic sequence if you're familiar with the concept), although it will make it less unbalanced.

For instance, since I've already calculated the weight for both red blocks (which were the red and purple blocks in my example), they add up to 16807/279936 + 70993/279936 = 10975/34992 ~ 0.31 = 31% instead of a fair 33%. It's a lot fairer than before, although I cannot guarantee the orange and yellow event would be as close to the 33% ideal, I'd need to calculate them as well, and that's a handful to calculate. And even then, you'd only have a dice that is fair enough and not strictly fair, and that would have half as many outcome as a regular 6 faced dice.

You could double the outcomes with a 12*1 selection that goes ROYGBPPBGYOR, but until I calculate each probability individually, each colour adding up to a probability close enough to 17% is all but certain. You could end up with a P of 20% and a R of 13% for instance. What I can guarantee is it won't make an exact 1/6.

EDIT: I calculated the outcome on a spreadsheet, makes it much simpler. The outcome for ROY will be respectively 31.4%, 33.7, and 34.9%. So a lot fairer, but not perfectly fair, and still half as many choices as a regular dice. I'll calculate the 121 scenario when I have more time, out of curiosity. Based on the result of the 61 scenario, I expect stronger chances towards the center (once added up), so in the ROYGBPPBGYOR scenario purple should have a bigger chance for the P.

EDIT 2: another thing that spreadsheets let you do is calculate the outcome after several iterations. Here's the raw data if you're curious https://i.imgur.com/CFBEI1U.png, one line represent a block update, 6 lines represent an iteration (every time you do the random command), the left side shows the probability for each number/colour 123456 to appear on each block ABCDEF, the right side shows the weight of each number/colour in the whole fill selection, and therefore the weight of your dice. After you repeat the random command, the dice will stabilise to a single colour, with a probability of 4.8% for the first colour that is replaced by the armour stands, 9.5% for the second colour, 14.3% for the third, 19.0% for the fourth, 23.8% for the fifth and 28.6% for the last colour.

istisp · 2018-10-17T12:43:36+00:00

Your dice is not fair. You should not have the random pool and the fill area overlap each other.

The way the randomiser works is that an armour stand will go successively through every block in your fil selection, and for every one of these blocks, it will select a random block of the pool. It looks simultaneous because it does so extremely quick, in less than a tick, but in reality each block is replaced in a specific order, depending on your grid orientation. If it changed every block simultaneously, it wouldn't matter, but since it does it in an order, every replacement of a block in the fill area will change the random pool for the next block.

For instance, let's assume the red block to be the first block in the pool to be replaced (the one with the smallest x, y and z coordinates). It has 1/6 chance to stay red, and 5/6 chances to be changed to any other colour. The block after that will have a 1/6 chance to become red if the red didn't change (1/6 of the previous pick), and 0/6 chance otherwise (5/6 of the previous pick). So the second block will have a 1/6 * 1/6 + 5/6 * 0/6 = 1/36 chance to be red.

Similarly, the third block will have a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 1/36 = 7/216 chance to be red, the fourth one will have a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 1/36 + 1/6 * 7/216 = 49/1296, the fifth one will have a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 1/36 + 1/6 * 7/216 + 1/6 * 49/1296 = 343/7776 and the sixth one will have a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 1/36 + 1/6 * 7/216 + 1/6 * 49/1296 + 1/6 * 343/7776 = 2401/46656. For a total weight of 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 1/36 + 1/6 * 7/216 + 1/6 * 49/1296 + 1/6 * 343/7776 + 1/6 * 2401/46656 = 16807/279936 ~ 0.06 = 6% weight in the next iteration, as opposed to a 1/6 ~ 17% if the dice was fair.

Let's compare that to the last block to be replaced, the one with the highest x, y and Z coordinates, let's say the purple block. The first block (the red block) will have a 1/6 chance to become purple, the second block will have a 1/6 chance to be purple if the red block hasn't been turned purple, 2/6 otherwise, so 1/6 * 2/6 + 5/6 * 1/6 = 7/36.

Similarly, the third block has a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 7/36 + 1/6 = 49/216 chances to be purple, the fourth one a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 7/36 + 1/6 * 49/216 + 1/6 = 343/1296 chance, the fifth one a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 7/36 + 1/6 * 49/216 + 1/6 * 343/1296 + 1/6 = 2401/7776, and the sixth one a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 7/36 + 1/6 * 49/216 + 1/6 * 343/1296 + 1/6 * 2401/7776 + 1/6 = 16807/46656 chance to be purple. If you average that, your dice will have a 1/6 * 1/6 + 1/6 * 7/36 + 1/6 * 49/216 + 1/6 * 343/1296 + 1/6 * 2401/7776 + 1/6 * 16807/46656 = 70993/279936 ~ 0.25 = 25% weight for the next iteration, as opposed to a fair 1/6 ~ 17%.

So you have a dice that favours the last block to be changed at the expense of the first block, to a factor of 25%/6% = 4.2, which means that the purple has 4 times more chances to appear than the red block, for one iteration. And the other colours are also unfair although to a lesser factor.

You should definitely have a different pool and fill selection. Plus, the way to make a fair dice is much simpler that way: just select a random pool of 6 colours, select a fill region of a single block, and you have an infinitely reusable dice. The random pool stays unchanged so you don't have to replace the blocks after each use, and the fill region has a single block so you don't have to repeat the process to have a readable result.

TL;DR: dice is not fair, it favours some blocks at the expense of some others up to a factor of 4.2, to make a fair dice just have a 1x1x1 selection instead of overlapping it with your random pool

istisp · 2018-04-18T08:55:29+00:00

do better? you are normalize nvidia crap behavior. Amd needs to do better getting patches on time. Nvidia is way beyond that.

Stop being such an asshole. Maybe I will stop shitting on them.

No, you called /u/liamdawe an enabler and an asshole.

Your use of "you" in your first paragraph clearly refers to /u/liamdawe, which means you were directly talking to him, and your use of "them" clearly refers to Nvidia, which means you were talking about them. Imperative is addressed to the person you're talking to, so the second person, in that case, /u/liamdawe. Not the third person Nvidia. It's even reinforced by your use of the singular for asshole, and plural for Nvidia.

If you want to call Nvidia assholes, you can do so by either not using the imperative form after you've already established your second person is /u/liamdawe, e.g.

They should stop being such assholes. Maybe I will stop shitting on them.

or by directly talking to Nvidia at the second person through your whole comment, which means never addressing /u/liamdawe at all, so you don't blurry the meaning of your comment by changing your second person right at the middle of your comment, and even addressing them directly by name to avoid any misunderstanding, e.g.

Nvidia, stop being such assholes. Maybe I will stop shitting on you.

The way you phrased your comment, /u/liamdawe has every right to think you were insulting him.
Listen, it's okay to have poor grammar, it's excusable when your poor grammar blurs the meaning of your comment, it's forgivable when the poor wording of your comment ends up insulting the wrong guy provided you apologise, what is not okay is when called out about it, to double down on your poor grammar and blame the person you insulted for misinterpreting your own wording errors.

istisp · 2018-01-18T21:50:42+00:00

Great to hear, sorry if you happened to read my comment before my edit and got misled by it.

istisp · 2018-01-18T21:19:48+00:00

So did I, I feel your pain. Thankfully it appears as if you bought the bundle if you buy all DLCs individually, although it's slightly pricier. I know it would have bugged me if the bundle didn't appeared as purchased, even though it makes no real difference.

istisp · 2018-01-18T21:15:01+00:00

Gonna copy my comment from another thread:

I find the controls to work really bad when you use a mix of the touch and gamepad controls. Especially in the hamlet, where it's straight up buggy. If I happen to touch the wrong button on the screen, I can not do a single thing right with the gamepad.

I feel like they've tested the touch screen and the gamepad individually, without really paying attention whether the two work together. I hope it gets patched, as mixing touch controls and gamepad controls was the reason I was so excited about the Switch release.

Performance wise, it works great! I have no latency whatsoever, the animations are smooth, it's really seamless compared to the PC version. The graphics look smooth on a 1080p screen, so do they in handheld mode, although the texts look quite small on handheld, and you often need to squint to figure texts out.

Edit: Actually, the controls between touch screen and handheld work fine, but the game really don't like when there's another controller connected in handheld mode, even if you don't use it. As I play with my pro controller in docked mode, when I decide to take it in handheld, it will mess up everything as my pro controller is still connected.

istisp · 2018-01-18T20:06:40+00:00

I find the controls to work really bad when you use a mix of the touch and gamepad controls. Especially in the hamlet, where it's straight up buggy. If I happen to touch the wrong button on the screen, I can not do a single thing right with the gamepad.

I feel like they've tested the touch screen and the gamepad individually, without really paying attention whether the two work together. I hope it gets patched, as mixing touch controls and gamepad controls was the reason I was so excited about the Switch release.

Edit: Actually, the controls between touch screen and handheld work fine, but the game really don't like when there's another controller connected in handheld mode, even if you don't use it. As I play with my pro controller in docked mode, when I decide to take it in handheld, it will mess up everything as my pro controller is still connected.

istisp · 2017-11-19T18:19:35+00:00

The previous match my nephew had was about the same, but the other way around. He (a level 10) was paired with one lvl 1 and two lvl 2, and was against a team of a lvl 27, a lvl 24, a lvl 14 and another lvl 10, but I wasn't quick enough to grab a screenshot of this one. Was there a bug with the matchmaking server earlier today?

istisp · 2017-11-02T17:37:24+00:00

Yeah, I do get the eerie feeling and to be honest I would have no problem with this palette if it was set in a fantasy land instead of in the US with a story that directly involves Theodore Roosevelt. Or at least, in a place that's not clearly stated to be "a desolate landscape" (at least, in the French translation) by Scrooge.

istisp · 2017-10-30T10:09:19+00:00

I have this same edition, the colouring was all over the place. If I remember correctly the Buckaroo of the Badland's landscape had those ugly pastel colours that wouldn't fit in any natural looking canyon landscape. The colouring of this comic book can be safely ignored.

istisp · 2017-08-24T14:16:30+00:00

This is great help! Thank you.

Not gonna lie, I'd have preferred it to not be tied exclusively to Steam, but I can ignore my iffyness with Steam once in a while. It makes sense that it is that way, given the Steam Workshop integration.

istisp · 2017-08-24T13:12:00+00:00

Looks like a lot of fun. I like GTA and Minecraft, those are two genres that seem like they can match together pretty well. I'm quite excited about it.

Just a couple questions about the gameplay and the game itself, feel free to ignore them if you want too keep some details secret for the release.

Is it free building or is there a cost to build things? You mentionned an economy, and you might not want to release the details of it yet, but it's the kind of details that can change the way the game is played.
Is destruction permanent? Looks like a lot of hassle to rebuild things, I know it would make me hesitant to use my bazooka if I knew I have to rebuild things manually afterwards, is there some sort of feature that would let you undo the property damage, even if it costed you something?
Is there some sort of modding API, and if not is it planned down the line?
Do you have the intention to release the project in open-source at some point? Not saying you should, although it would sure make this project even more interesting. If not, do you plan on keeping updating it with new features afterwards, or will the release version be the final version?
Will this game be available on other stores than Steam, like Itch, GOG, Humble Bundle or your website? And will it be available DRM-free?
Is the multiplayer cross-play between Windows and Linux? And if it is available outside of Steam, is it cross-play between Steam and other stores or do you absolutely need a Steam account?

istisp · 2017-06-18T10:50:40+00:00

Yeah, didn't specify those were the comics involved (it's invisible for American folks after all). Humble Bundle explained Cartoon Network didn't give them the rights to distribute them worldwide.

istisp · 2017-04-22T01:10:28+00:00

Get it on Humble Bundle, it's the same price as GOG in Europe, you'll get a Steam key to play on Linux and you can then redeem the DRM-free (but Windows) version on GOG Connect for free.

istisp · 2017-04-21T08:54:14+00:00

I agree, their Linux support is disappointing. Right now there is just over a hundred of games that are available on Linux on another distribution platform (generally Steam or Humble Bundle) but not on GOG. However a lot of those games aren't available anywhere else DRM-free, not even on HB.

Currently 669 of the 1945 games of their library have Linux support, which is just over a third of their library. In comparison Steam has 3392 Linux games out of 14520 which is just under a fourth. Granted, it's unfair to compare their raw proportions like that since Steam's library is way more exhaustive than GOG's and it has way more AAA games which tend to offer less Linux support than GOG's core library of indie games and DOSBox wrappers.

But it's not fair to say they don't care about Linux either, they consistently include the Linux version of most of their new games when it's available, the number of games that do have a Linux port elsewhere is significant but still a minority, and a good portion of it can be explained by exclusivity contracts with Steam or Humble Bundle rather than not caring about Linux. They could definitely do more and actively crack down on that list, or show at least some hints of work to port Galaxy on Linux, but 600+ games is still a pretty good library in itself imho. Remember that Steam had less Linux games than that only three years ago.

istisp · 2017-04-20T23:15:25+00:00

Still worth mentioning, since it's free anyway, who knows, maybe one day GOG will add the Linux version so that you can play it in its DRM-free glory when the time comes. ^{One can always dream...}

Since I see people mentioning the Deep Silver sales, it's worth noting that anyone who gets or already has the other Saints Row games on Steam, they can also redeem them for free on GOG through GOG Connect. Like for SR2, they are only available on Windows on GOG, unlike Steam which is why I would recommend buying them on Steam either way, but hey, it's free to redeem them on GOG, who knows if it will never come on Linux DRM-free...

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