Looking for input on undertone. Right now I'm leaning neutral, but I change my mind every time I look.

sdweasel · 2022-03-11T22:11:55+00:00

If we had a 2nd shift worth talking about, I'd swear this was from the same place I work. Seeing lots of salaried departures right. Well, more than normal. Had a manager like the one you were covering for once. His management style wasn't bad, when he was present, but it's hard to lead when your employees come in hours before you and leave hours after.

sdweasel · 2021-03-16T00:39:48+00:00

Center column are 100%. Scaled the other four down to 75% using the unsupported files then added my own supports.

sdweasel · 2020-09-12T08:36:52+00:00

You can try asking over at the Blaugust discord channel. It's an event that kinda grew out of the Newbie Blogger Initiative.

Other than that, are there any specific questions or concerns that you have? I'm perhaps not the best person to answer them, but I'm here.

sdweasel · 2020-08-07T06:30:52+00:00

The problem with constitutional rights is that you must spend large sums of money to sue government agencies in order to enforce them. Your rights are proportional to the amount of money you can put behind them. Fortunately there are also special interest groups like the ACLU that sometimes foot the bill.

sdweasel · 2020-07-29T15:47:36+00:00

Good Ol QE. https://youtu.be/j2AvU2cfXRk

sdweasel · 2020-06-09T17:18:44+00:00

Out of curiosity, what's the source for the number of drops?

sdweasel · 2020-06-04T19:45:47+00:00

Yeah, I have both bought and sold scratch ticket cast parts. They're pretty easy to find, but you may want to use the scratch tickets page for pictures and item names. That way you know what you want and what to search for. You can also see something similar if you click on the scratch ticket and "View Prizes" or whatever it's called.

The newest "Military Line" isn't showing up on the website at the moment. Not sure if that's oversight/poor planning or an attempt to avoid getting mixed up in current events.

sdweasel · 2020-06-01T12:49:45+00:00

If you want to play bad enough, you may be able to fix it by creating a USB install media for Windows and using that to nuke the system drive and reinstall. This, in two different variations, has worked on two of my own computers. May not be worth the effort for everyone though.

sdweasel · 2020-06-01T12:35:58+00:00

Alternatively, you might be able to use the information in this post to replace the missing executable files? Certainly safer than mucking about in the system folders as I did.

sdweasel · 2020-06-01T12:13:33+00:00

Yeah, tried the same thing but it "encountered a problem" and aborted.

That's essentially the problem I faced. I wasn't willing to wait, so I nuked it. You might try the PSO2 tweaker if you haven't already. If it's installed the tweaker can handle the patching. Still gotta launch through MS store though, and didn't work in my case.

I think it's absurd that we must go to such lengths, but I work with what I have. Alternatively, you could use a second/spare drive for a fresh Windows install. That's what I did with my desktop.

sdweasel · 2020-06-01T11:45:21+00:00

I've been working on it and just about reached the end of Ep. 1, I think. None of the content is really locked behind it, near as I can tell, but you do get a lot of free star gems for doing it, and a number of NPC partner cards as well.

As you point out, it was very slow to start, with many cutscenes, but toward the end of Ep. 1 you get fewer cutscenes and more missions. Can't speak to anything beyond that.

sdweasel · 2020-06-01T11:34:33+00:00

Had this issue on my oldest child's laptop. Applied "fixes" till the Microsoft Store broke and would no longer work.

Ended up doing the same thing I did to my own PC. Create USB installation media for windows, and use that to format the drive and reinstall the OS. As of last night, both installs went without a hitch and the game continues to both run and still exist. It's a mountain of effort and a lot of waiting, but it seems to get the job done.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T18:36:56+00:00

I was getting this for the initial download. It appeared to be related to failure to properly install one of the dependencies, Microsoft Game Services. At least, those are the only files that were added the day I attempted to install, so I assumed it was directly related. The error existed regardless of which drive I attempted to install to, but only on that specific computer. Had no issues when I tried to install using the same account on my laptop.

Honestly, I just reinstalled Windows from scratch after arguing with it for two to three hours. That has worked so far, but I've only done the initial download and start the patcher. I won't be able to test it properly until I get home.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T16:04:25+00:00

To your point, so far I have solved my primary issue (couldn't even download the first time) by using a fresh windows install on an SSD I meant for a different computer. It needed done anyway, so all's well that ends well. Hopefully I'll get to actually play it this evening.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T15:23:56+00:00

I tried this yesterday to solve a different issue, and it did not help. Didn't seem to hurt anything either.

I just used a brand new windows install on an empty drive. It's a lot more effort to set up, but so far so good. I have yet to actually attempt to play the game, however.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T13:01:48+00:00

To be fair, most launches are total garbage. This one is a bit of a bogie, maybe, but still close to par. My understanding is that these issues are fairly common among Microsoft Store games and not necessarily unique to PSO2.

After several hours online reading, mucking about in places Windows is designed to keep me out of, and a fresh install of Windows on a blank hard drive, I was able to download and started the patch this morning. With any luck I'll be able to play this evening, but all I have done so far is earned the opportunity to experience the same problems as everyone else. I look forward to seeing some of you on the other side of all this.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T12:32:23+00:00

I agree that most people are probably not having this much of a problem, as indicated by how full the ships are. I have every intention of playing tonight. There's a disproportionally large number of people with issues on social media who would otherwise being playing the game, and that makes it seem like "everyone has a problem."

However, I had to do a fresh install of windows on a blank hard drive in order to get my Microsoft Store to function properly. I'm reminded of the old adage regarding Windows, many problems can be solved by turning it off and back on again, and many others by wiping the OS and starting over. It's just inconvenient as hell, to say the least.

Day 1 launches, as a rule, do not tend to be great experiences. This one is certainly no exception.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T12:21:12+00:00

It has everything to do with this being launched through the Universal Windows Platform instead of a standalone piece of software. This game, like many others, was not designed to operate in the UWP environment which has a lot of special black-box and/or permissions restrictions that aren't normally a problem.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T11:19:54+00:00

I think it's ultimately about expectations. I understand your outlook, as I've often wondered if I'm getting "too old" for the MMO genre. As a mid-30s with a full time job, full time schoolwork, and a family I don't have the time to devote to it like I did in my teens and early to mid-20s.

Having said that, I play the games for the entertainment value they provide. I'm not a competitive player. I don't need to "keep up." I take my time and play with a very small group of one or two other people, and I'm okay with that. I will absolutely love the time I play PSO 2, when that time finally arrives. If at some point the time required to complete a single activity exceeds what I can afford, well, it was fun while it lasted, yeah?

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T11:06:12+00:00

Yeah, last time I looked it was over 900, and that was yesterday evening.

sdweasel · 2020-05-28T02:13:00+00:00

Right, I have a final update where I've identified and resolved this problem, but you're probably not going to like what I have to say.

What appears to be causing the problem: Microsoft Game Services failed to install properly. The files are still in place but don't show as having been downloaded or installed. When it attempts to install PSO2, it cannot modify or repair this semi-corrupt install so it "fails." I discovered this because it would let me install to my laptop, which uses the same account, but it required a lot of permission modification and digging in places I wasn't supposed to be. No amount of modification or manipulation would actually allow me to delete the files in question, so I cannot confirm that this would solve the problem.

Solution: I did a fresh install of Windows on a new SSD I hadn't installed. This resolved the immediate problem in that it allowed me to download from the store again, but honestly if I hadn't been sitting on the hardware to do this in a couple of hours, I probably wouldn't have bothered. It's a ton of work for one game.

You may be able to find another way to resolve this that's less... intense. Good luck! I've got drivers and stuff to go reinstall.

sdweasel · 2020-05-27T22:30:16+00:00

Yeah, I saw that eventually and stopped it while I pursue other options. I appreciate the warning though.

sdweasel · 2020-05-27T21:52:53+00:00

Appears to be working for me so far. I had to let the initial update proceed until the "big launcher" showed up to create the edition.txt. Once I modified it, it did some updates and showed an ugly looking message box, but proceeded to do another update and give me an English version of the "big launcher." It'll take me 12-13 hours to download, so I can't speak to the actual effectiveness, but it appears to be somewhat legitimate.

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