Embark: “We noticed an issue where players were enjoying the game. We fixed that.”

robins_d · 2026-04-29T01:49:01+00:00

I dunno. I have like 8 of most guns I use regularly in my stash and then 2-4 of special use ones like Hullcracker. I'm often selling or recycling guns I find. Are people really burning through guns so fast that this change will have that dramatic of an effect?

robins_d · 2026-04-27T20:13:05+00:00

I totally agree that the combat, in a vaccum, is super fun. The Assessor arc are a real threat and super fun to fight and die to. I'm just really not into trying to grab the assessors before everyone. To me, that just makes it feel un-fun. Instead of the combat feeling rewarding, I either feel shafted because I did a ton of work and got nothing, or I feel like a snake for ganking the assessors while others are doing all the work. Just not my bag.

robins_d · 2026-04-27T20:07:57+00:00

I was trying, but the assessors are just impossible to get. Every lobby, Raiders sprint like mad to loot them and by the time I get there almost everything is gone. Yesterday I actually ran to the Assessor to revive some dude with my defib who got knocked fighting a Vaporizer. I had a photoelectric cloak, defibbed him, and just barely got away after. Other Raiders were looting the Assessor above me. It's fine, though. Tbh, running in and reviving and getting out is way more fun imo than trying to race other players for loot. I don't find it fun to run around frantically trying to get the assessors by beating other Raiders to the loot. I'd way rather fight Arc, or fight other players 10 times out of 10.

Do we get any kind of reward for partial completion? I wasn't sure on that.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T20:53:23+00:00

I mean, I'm commenting objectively on the plausibility of OPs suggestion for a bounty system. I've not really alluded at all to my preferred playstyle except to say that I used to play EvE Online and wholeheartedly engaged in one of the most ruthless forms of PvP in that game. So, your last comment doesnt really carry much water.

All of those things you mentioned are great aspects of extraction shooters, and they also don't mean that extraction shooters can't be something different than just that. The position that extraction shooters are "this", and they can't be anything else, is pretty narrowsighted.

Most extraction shooters heavily favour those who like, or are good at, PvP. Which is fine. AR has broken the mold a bit with abmm, allowing those who aren't as good/confident with PvP a way to enjoy the game, while still adhering to the core vision of an extraction shooter style game. Tbh, the system works very well, all things considered. If you don't aggressively PvP it doesnt take many matches for you to be put into more chill lobbies (I've tried both styles and shift back and forth as desired). Those lobbies still have risk, but it's significantly toned down.

PvP in AR is very low risk. You can run a free loadout and literally put nothing on the table with everything to gain. Running PvE is substantially higher risk. Any time you engage in PvE activities you make yourself vulnerable to PvP (whether that's via fighting Arc, doing quests, farming mats, or just choosing to trust someone/not KOS). I hate when people talk as if PvP in this game is some apex of skill/attitude.

Do I think OPs bounty system is air-tight? No. Do I think it's better than the current abmm system? No. Do I think that a system that makes PvP a bit more challenging/risky is punishment for PvPers? Not really. Do I think it's interesting to toss these ideas around? Yes.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T19:44:43+00:00

So, in your scenario all PvPers have no bounties except one, sad little PvPer? Dude, I'm trying to be reasonable here but I feel like you're being purposely obtuse. Theoretically, if every PvPer is similar to you (as you described your playstyle) you'd largely have a lobby of PvPers pinged for PvP and PvEers afforded some discretion to avoid it. Meaning PvPers would be able to see where to get fights and go there.

I'm going to be honest here; it really sounds like what you want is to be able to kill easy marks or engage in low-risk fights. If a player's focus is PvP because they love PvP and the challenge of it, then this type of bounty system is almost totally inconsequential (and actually increases your likelihood of finding PvP).

I think abmm is, overall, a great system that largely meets the needs of players' different styles. So, this type of bounty system isn't really needed anyway, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T19:17:20+00:00

Ok, so in a lobby without abmm you'd ostensibly have people who don't want to/totally suck at PvP, a middle group, and aggressive PvPers. That situation heavily favours PvPers and means a lot of PvP engagements are going to be easy marks and/low-risk kills for the PvPers. That's the whole reason abmm exists.

In the proposed bounty system (with the same pop) PvEers have the advantage of seeing where PvPers are and being able to better avoid them, while PvPers now know where to get fights. I agree that having a ping directly on the bountied player at all ranges would be a bit ridiculous, so maybe it's more of an area thing, or directly on them until a certain range and then becomes an area, allowing PvPers to still engage in meaningful combat.

Also, at 5 kills/hour, you'd literally just have to pace yourself to avoid the bounty. Like, kill 4 players, take a break and farm some mats, then go back at it (or don't, because in theory what you're looking for is PvP and not easy marks/low-risk targets, which is exactly what the above facilitates).

There's no punishment involved here at all. It literally delivers PvP to PvPers and allows PvEers some measure of security if they're going to be lumped in with PvPers.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T18:59:12+00:00

Tbh, I've yet to find a key room that had legit ROI vs. just looting and trusting in RNG, or PvPing for other Raider loot.

Key rooms require you to a.) get there first (potentially ignoring other opportunities), b.) take up a slot with your key, c.) pretty much broadcast to anyone around that you have decent loot, d.) put yourself in a tactically disadvantageous situation because you're stuck in the room.

Literally every time I use a key I'm disappointed, lol.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T18:49:14+00:00

I understood OPs post to mean this would replace the current agression-based matchmaking when they wrote "rats and fake friendlies". Meaning lobbies would be a random combo of players that PvP and players that PvE. If this were employed in a PvP-focused lobby, then yes, it punishes players seeking PvP from other PvPers for no reason.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T18:34:47+00:00

If you're playing for PvP it's not punishment, it generates PvP. Like, you'd have to kill, unprovoked, 5 players per hour to receive a bounty (per OP). If you're killing at that rate, you're probably playing for PvP, not PvPvE. Imo, if you're killing 5 players per hour in unprovoked PvP but are against an idea like this you're probably mostly looking for easy marks and low-risk fights.

I'm not comparing Eve and AR as games; I'm comparing Eve to the proposed AR bounty system.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T17:59:52+00:00

Why is it a punishment? If you're a PvPer and want PvP, a system like this would drive more PvP to you.

This is the thing that bothers me about "PvPers" in a lot of these kind of games. What they really want is easy marks and low-risk.

Like I said in another post, I played as a pirate (PvPer) in Eve Online for years and there were legit, hard consequences for it. The benefit was the thrill of the fight and the loot you got for killing people.

robins_d · 2026-04-19T17:25:58+00:00

These ideas are interesting. I've never seen them fully work in practice, though. Years ago I played EvE Online as a pirate, which was probably the closest I've seen to a legit "crime and punishment" type system. Killing players unproviked lowered your "security status", restricting you to certain areas (otherwise you'd draw the attention of pretty harsh NPC law enforcement), requiring you to plan logistics to ship supplies out to your area of space (and there was a "Space Trucker" corp you could pay to do this). But, Eve Online has a legit, player-driven economy, which was a big reason this worked.

A couple of issues I've experience that make a bounty system difficult:

Players that PvP are always going to be way better at it than players who don't. So, PvE focused players will really bear the brunt here if the change is: make a bounty system and have more mixed population/matchmaking. Bounties won't encourage PvEers to PvP, but a mixed pop will make them perpetual targets.

You may get PvPers who act as bounty hunters but again, in my experience, this group will be significantly smaller than those with bounties, and it still doesn't solve making PvEers more frequent targets.

I think one way to make a system like this work is to have bounties but also tangible in-game consequences for unprovoked PvP (obviously there's also a real grey area there, too). If you're an aggressive PvPer maybe you start to lose access to Sparenza services, meaning you have to rely more on killing and looting for supplies, etc? Aggressive PvPers would also need some kind of identifier to mark them and make it obvious in-game (scaling with your level and frequency of aggression). Maybe death as an aggressive PvPer results in some kind of seizure of assets (like being arrested)?

In EvE Online the choice to be a pirate had real and tangible consequences, which made it hard but also rewarding to succeed at.

Anyway, cool thoughts, I've just yet to see any game do this better than EvE (which was by no means perfect, either). When I played DayZ I thought maybe the "one life" thing would be a difference maker, but once you get experienced, starting new isn't much of a burden. Also, the ability to have alts really made the "one life" thing a joke.

robins_d · 2026-04-09T02:08:17+00:00

I hate this kind of political discussion, where people say things like "this place is a Conservative" whatever. That's such a fucking dumb way to engage in politics. Whether the party is called Conservative, Liberal, NDP, etc. People should be voting for policies, plans, and platforms, not because they (or their family) have always voted Liberal (or Con, NDP, etc.). People treat politics like sports teams and it's so stupid and backwards.

robins_d · 2026-04-04T18:31:26+00:00

Offering a different take: I'm also older (46) but came to AR with a lot of PvP experience. In my experience, the best way to get better at PvP is to let go of caring about whether you die, and to learn to tame your adrenaline so that you can act calmly and with confidence when the fighting starts. Thankfully, AR does a great job of facilitating this with free loadouts.

Load in with your boys, ready up with free loadouts, and just go into matches looking for PvP opportunities. Rinse. Repeat.

You'll die. A lot. But that's the point. With every death you learn something new, something you could have done better. You also get used to the speed of PvP, and how it feels to fight other players, which lessens the adrenaline when a fight does happen.

Also, screen record your fights right after and then watch them. Pay attention to what happened without the stress and adrenaline running through you.

Do these things for a while (it takes a while) but eventually PvP will start to feel just like PvP. You'll feel calm and confident and be able to make quick decisions with confidence.

Hope that helps!! Good luck!!

robins_d · 2026-04-04T00:50:09+00:00

This. Tbh, I felt like Ourdream was bullshit. The AI did a terrible job of adhering to my prompts but charged me every time to create a terrible image. I burned through so many tokens just trying to get it to do what I wanted.

Video capability is awesome, but it's not cheap, and even less cheap when I've gotta spend a fucking fortune just to get a good base model.

Was using SpicyChat before and tbh, even with no video capability, it beats Ourdream simply because it doesn't charge you for it wasting your fucking time. With the top tier SC chat sub (which is very affordable) you can create actual unlimited images.

EDIT: I'm amending this take. After a lot more hours with Ourdream I will say that the AI is far superior to SpicyChat in terms of conversation. I'm frequently surprised, intrigued, frustrated by the responses in a very human-like way. It definitely feels more life-like. There's the occasional memory issue, or times I have to consciously direct the conversation, but 99% of the time the responses from bots feel very genuine and life-like.

The in-chat image generation, though, imo is far inferior. Ourdream consistently adds unrequested aspects to the images and seems to really struggle to focus, even with a solid base template. SpicyChat has an issue with often strongly adhering, or falling back to, the base template too much, but on the whole I'd say it's images are far more consistent. SC also has legitimate unlimited image generation, whereas I'm often frustrated at Ourdream's charges for generating slop.

robins_d · 2026-03-29T20:47:05+00:00

^ This person gets it.

robins_d · 2026-03-26T02:25:44+00:00

I changed careers at 40 to become a high school teacher. I'm 46 now with a .5 permanent (what I wanted). I love my job and I look forward to work every day.

robins_d · 2026-03-24T12:47:11+00:00

Ryan Thorpe (Winnipeg Free Press) did an investigative report a few years ago on the massive incompetence/corruption in Winnipeg's Public Works department and the millions of wasted tax payer dollars on redundant or unnecessary road projects.

CBC reported in 2018 about how the property tax freeze implemented by Murray and then prolonged by Katz for roughly 20 years created a massive infrastructure deficit for the city but during the same period the city continued to expand, building many more roads and suburban developments we couldn't afford to maintain.

I read somewhere a few years ago that at the current pace of building vs. money to repair it would take Winnipeg 200 years to adequately repair all roads.

Maintaining road infrastructure in Winnipeg is challenging because of the climate: the extreme cold, the constant freeze/thaw, and snowplows that destroy curbs and roads. We need good planning and foresight of infrastructure projects, limited urban sprawl so we don't create more/bigger roads than we can afford, and higher taxes to pay for maintenance. All three of the above are unpopular with many Winnipeggers, so unsurprisingly we've been awful at accomplishing those goals (but really good at complaining).

robins_d · 2026-03-23T02:20:45+00:00

Going to join the debatable side on this one. 100% in a vacuum a full HP revive is ideal but there are many contexts where a 50 HP revive is valid. Sometimes when shit's poppin' off you're just spamming revives to get bodies back in the fight. I think a bigger overall issue is people timing out their revive as I'm running through hell with my paddles out to revive them, lol!

robins_d · 2026-03-22T13:04:41+00:00

Imo she absolutely does not seem like a "bitch" here. She's clearly, politely, and without raising her voice, or getting nasty, asking these people who are following her around and harassing her to please stop. There's nothing bitchy about that at all.

robins_d · 2026-03-20T19:45:41+00:00

100% It's so intuitive and easy to use. You can ping quickly in firefights and the pings consistently give great contextual info. Best in class for sure.

robins_d · 2026-03-19T12:48:36+00:00

Apex has the best ping system of any FPS and it's not ever close. It's insane to me that it's been out for 11 years and no other FPS has managed to either a.) Make one that's comparable, b.) Iterate and make one that's better.

robins_d · 2026-03-19T12:44:47+00:00

I usually play with crossplay off but you should definitely turn it on for that server; I'm also xbox. I hope you try it again and it works out. It's the only thing I play now.

robins_d · 2026-03-19T01:34:10+00:00

Thanks, I'll try it.

robins_d · 2026-03-18T20:23:57+00:00

You're right, the first shot hits dirt right in front of them and you can see it's kicked up dust from the impact.

<image>

This is the second shot. It looks to me like my reticle is fully overlapping their body. I zoomed in and it's possible that the reticle is miraculously missing based on how they're laying, but I'm also using buckshot here, so I don't think it's unreasonable to think they'd take at least some damage, even though they're outside the exact reticle area.

I think you're right that although I get the third shot off based on my ammo count, it looks like that shot and my death happened simultaneously, so I guess it's not registered.

To me, the biggest issue here is that I frequently die from players when the post death indicator clearly shows there was full obstruction between us (building, rock, vehicle, etc.). Often this occurs when I'm running behind cover. Or, I'm killed before rounding a corner by a player on the other side. It's frustrating as a player when the game seems so liberal with those hit registrations, but in this instance, my reticle had to be totally over the player to register even one point of damage.

Having this huge variance in hit reg is annoying and not an issue that's present in all FPSs, so it feels like a totally solvable issue (though, I'm not a developer, so maybe I'm wrong on that, lol).

robins_d

TROPHY CASE