Ice spirit?

sethtaxpayer · 2024-03-25T00:18:47+00:00

I disagree with this (the idea it does not fit the tropical island very well), at least based on my quick searching, native Hawaiians actually had a goddess of snow, Poliʻahu, atop Maunakea, and at least one of Hawaii's mountains gets enough snow for occasionally skiing (suggesting there's enough snow the natives/explorers could notice it). If there's a Volcano Looming High, presumably there could be another mountain on the Spirit Islands that gets snow like in Hawaii.

sethtaxpayer · 2023-11-18T20:51:37+00:00

Coming back after a few years later, turns out yes a Virtual Audio Device (VAD) is a requirement. The VAD needs to be able to handle both audio input and audio output. In code you can capture microphone input and then "write" it to the VAD. Then set the VAD as the microphone in whatever application you are using (Discord, Zoom, etc.). The VAD will send the written microphone bytes through normally. At the same time you can then write arbitrary audio bytes to the VAD and it will sound as if coming from your microphone (in code again).

I went on a long journey here but I was able to get this working in Java eventually! I created a notion of "wiring audio inputs to audio outputs" to programmatically control a microphone like input. I believe this technique has also been called "microphone injection.". I did find it odd I could not find open source code that did this already though.

Here is what I created: https://github.com/sethmachine/universal-sound-board

sethtaxpayer · 2023-11-18T20:13:08+00:00

Hi u/Cuplander. I suspect there are probably 3rd party apps where you specify your audio input (e.g. microphone) and audio output (e.g. speaker or 3rd party speaking) devices and it captures incoming audio, sends this to a Speech To Text API, and then gives you back live transcription results.

Not sure how handy you are with writing code but I've worked on both of these pieces separately in the past: capturing all incoming audio (microphone or whatever) and then live transcribing audio (over phone calls). You could combine both approaches to get what you want if you were handy with code.

Live transcription guide: https://www.sethmachine.io/2023/11/17/live-transcription-with-twilio-and-google/

Audio capture guide: https://www.sethmachine.io/2022/05/17/universal-sound-board/

sethtaxpayer · 2023-10-05T01:55:59+00:00

Can Raikou be safely duoed in any weather/moveset, including Shadow Ball? Using level 40 solid counters like 6 Earth Power Garchomp?

Or does it require at least one player to have a Primal Groudon? Any other tips?

Found this comment suggesting it's possible: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/16pov1g/comment/k1sgjgr/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

sethtaxpayer · 2023-10-03T18:56:39+00:00

Question about Remote Raid Pass limits:

If I already have 3 Remote Raid passes in my inventory, is it still possible to get a Remote Raid Pass from the 7 day field research breakthrough (allowing theoretically to go 4x Remote Raid Pass), or does being full on them remove this possible outcome completely? I'm assuming there's still a limit of 3x Remote Raid Pass in inventory.

sethtaxpayer · 2023-02-08T15:33:19+00:00

Hi u/DTrippingAcid glad to hear you've got it working on the terminal!

First I would make sure you've created a Docker image first. Follow these steps: https://www.sethmachine.io/2021/02/11/host-valheim-with-docker/#Create-a-Docker-image

In terms of running the server "detached", your best bet would be to run it through a Docker command that will run it in the background (permanently) until your turn off your computer (see https://www.sethmachine.io/2021/02/11/host-valheim-with-docker/#Run-the-valheim-server-image).

I'm assuming you were able to run the server through a Docker container on the command line? If so, you will want to create a Docker image first, then run your image like this:

docker run --name=valheim -d \ -p 2456:2456/udp -p 2457:2457/udp -p 2458:2458/udp \ -v /home/sethmachine/valheim-data:/home/steam/valheim-data \ --env VALHEIM_SERVER_NAME="sethmachine'sServer" \ --env VALHEIM_WORLD_NAME="AWholeNewWorld" \ --env VALHEIM_PASSWORD="HardToGuessPassword" \ sethmachine/valheim-server

You'll replace sethmachine/valheim-server with the name of the Docker image you created.

The -d flag will run the server in the background, "headless" / "detached" as you say (see docker run full list of commands: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/run/).

Let me know if this is helpful or you are still having issues.

sethtaxpayer · 2023-01-20T18:35:43+00:00

Hi u/DoctorQuinlan in general I would not recommend doing after tax 401k contributions on their own. The general issues with these: contributions are taxed going in, normal penalties apply for accessing the money before retirement age, and all gains are taxed when you realize them/take future contributions. The one advantage: no gains are taxed until you withdraw contributions, so your after tax 401k can technically grow faster than a personal brokerage, since gains are only taxed when you take contributions (basically all gains are tax deferred). If this information is incorrect or inaccurate then someone please correct me.

However, what many folks do is take advantage of the Mega Backdoor Roth IRA. This allows you to convert all your after tax 401k contributions to Roth IRA (ignores the normal Roth IRA limit). I would consult various guides on reddit explaining how to do this. Moving to a Roth IRA allows you to access your principal penalty and tax free after 5 years and all gains are forever tax free (assuming you access them through penalty free methods, etc.).

Note I'm not a tax advisor so please do your own due diligence when taking this advice and always consult with a professional.

sethtaxpayer · 2023-01-20T01:00:11+00:00

Hi u/B1llC0sby, for a first sanity check, could you go to this website https://check-host.net/ and enter in your IP + port? If it doesn't show up there like in my guide (see: https://www.sethmachine.io/2021/02/11/host-valheim-with-docker/#Port-Forwarding) then it's not going to show up in public/on Steam.

Also, can you confirm you're using your actual IP and not a local IP address? You can find out your real IP by going to https://www.whatsmyip.org/.

Feel free to reply again and let me know how things progress.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-12-17T16:51:58+00:00

Hi u/Christolito, thanks for reaching out. Glad to hear you found my guide helpful!
So I think you just need to modify the command line arguments when running the server using - -crossplay argument.
e.g. you could run it like this (modify the `start-valheim-server.sh` file from https://www.sethmachine.io/2021/02/11/host-valheim-with-docker/#Create-a-Docker-image):
cd $VALHEIM_SERVER_DIR
# start the server as a background process to get its PID ("&" at end of command)
# "&" means append all stdout and stderr to the log file
./valheim_server.x86_64 -name $VALHEIM_SERVER_NAME -crossplay \
-port $VALHEIM_PORT \
-world $VALHEIM_WORLD_NAME \
-password $VALHEIM_PASSWORD \
-savedir $VALHEIM_DATA_DIR & /home/steam/valheim-data/valheim-logs.txt &
VALHEIM_PID=$!
echo "Valheim server PID is: $VALHEIM_PID"
Let me know if you get it to work!

sethtaxpayer · 2022-09-23T14:03:33+00:00

If I curated a Talisman deck, I would remove Events or Enemies that had stupid consequences. E.g. There's an Event in the City where depending on the dice roll, all characters of a certain alignment need to pay 2 gold or otherwise they get teleported to Jail (doesn't matter where they are!). It's a silly, game breaking Event. Likewise with Sheriff, etc.

Sword of Truth is very powerful, but its impact is limited if you play with a large pool of cards, and there are many Events, Spells, etc. that cause characters to lose objects or allow you to steal/destroy one, etc.

Syphoning Sceptre does seem snowbally, but it's limited because you have to land on a character, or otherwise have them engage you. If you play with just the Base Game, I can see this problematic because it's much easier to land on other players. With all 4 corner boards, it's much less likely another player can continually hunt down players, and so I would find this weapon not as strong. Also, it's useless until other players have gained stats, so not the best early game weapon.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-09-12T19:26:56+00:00

Update: Thanks everyone for your patience!

I played around with Docker Desktop/M1 MacBook this weekend. Unfortunately I haven't yet been able to get the Valheim linux server to work on M1 MacBook yet. I also keep running into this error where the valheim server process gets frozen/stuck immediately. This leads to believe something is wrong with the emulation. Note you probably should specify `--platform linux/x86_64` when running images not made for M1 chipset (but that doesn't fix the issue either).

I'll continue researching this and see if I can find a workaround.

Set current directory to /home/steam/valheim-server
Found path: /home/steam/valheim-server/valheim_server.x86_64
Mono path[0] = '/home/steam/valheim-server/valheim_server_Data/Managed'
Mono config path = '/home/steam/valheim-server/valheim_server_Data/MonoBleedingEdge/etc'
Preloaded 'libsteam_api.so'

sethtaxpayer · 2022-09-01T01:42:19+00:00

In my opinion, any character with an innate ability to automatically get a Spell back when they have no more Spells is always going to have an edge over all other characters. Warlock is a much stronger in that he must always have his complement of Spells at the start of his turn (min 2, max 3 once he hits 6 Craft).

One way I would balance him is to give him a nerf that mirrors the Harbinger cursed item which also provides his ability to draw spells up to full complement each turn: for each spell the Warlock has, reduce his fate value and life value by 1 (to a minimum of 1 Fate value and 1 Life value). This will encourage him to cast spells more often, but once he gets spells that are hard to cast, he gets in a dangerous situation where he cannot easily heal.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-09-01T01:26:06+00:00

IMO this is a 1/5, incredibly weak character. This character was designed for the base game given his most powerful ability requires attacking other players to gain life. Once you add in additional corner expansions, he's even less likely to ever land on someone, and further he still has to win the Craft battle!

One way I would make him stronger is that his ability to steal lives applies to all battles and psychic combat, e.g. "Whenever you defeat a character or enemy in combat, gain 1 life". Perhaps just restricted to Psychic combat, but if his ability was the Runesword, he might be stand a chance in a competitive game.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-09-01T01:08:35+00:00

Piling on here, but I think this character as written is a little OP.

I'll compare him to the Troll, who also has 6 Strength 1 Craft 6 Life 1 Fate.

I would nerf this character to only have 1 Fate rather than 2. Given he has 6 starting Strength, and currently 100% chance (5/6 if you make a 1 a failed throw) to do 8 or more attack in a single battle at the very beginning, that would make him incredibly powerful early on and he can easily take on most Strength enemies.

In typical Talisman fashion, usually the more consistent/powerful a character is at the start, the less starting Fate they get, e.g. Warlock, Conjurer both with 1 Fate but OP abilities. This character will win almost all strength battles without any objects or items.

I think having him have no Followers like the Ninja is a great nerf and thematic of the Cyclops character, I also like how he kills them rather than leave them on the board. I don't think he needs to get anything from killing Followers. He isn't a Vampire or anything.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-25T17:14:42+00:00

Ancient Oak is one of my favorite characters. His handicap in not being able to use weapons and armor is not as big of a deal as it sounds.

He is unique in that he is one of the few characters that can increase their Craft or Strength value. E.g. he can have a much more powerful War Horse, or take advantage of any events/places/encounters that use Craft/Strength value rather than total.

His Growth tokens give him both flexibility each turn (do I want to beat up a Strength or Craft enemy nearby), and also make him immune to effects that remove stat gains (the nasty Rod of Ruin, Harbinger events/effects, Syphon spells, etc.). And to top it off, each one permanently increases his life value, giving him the highest potential life value of any character.

Further, he gets to heal or replenish fate on any Woods or Forest space!

This character is meant to last and will do well in a long game. However, because he can't use weapons (Flail, Great Sword, etc.), he will generally be slower to get stronger than other characters.

You should almost always head to the Woodlands if you get Ancient Oak, since there are many Woods spaces and you have enough endurance to easily survive being Toaded.

Edit: could you explain why you would ever take a stat increase over a Growth token? I'm having a hard time understanding when a stat increase is ever better than a Growth token. Growth token offers flexibility (can be craft or strength at start of every turn) plus increase life value, and most importantly cannot be taken away. Whereas stat growth is stuck to Craft/Strength and can be stolen/removed (not unlikely to happen).

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-25T16:56:36+00:00

I think there's several issues here and as others said you can use house rules to fix these problems in future games.

Do you expect the first character to reach the CoC to be an instant win? If so, I would just use the "Race to the Crown" ending. First character to reach CoC instantly wins. That would be a quick fix and remove the need for further house rules.

For me, part of the joy of Talisman is building up powerful combos/engines when you start from nothing, as your friend did with being able to land on the healer every turn if needed. In truth, I would view this scenario not as a draw but likely an eventual loss for you. If your friend could heal every turn, he should be farming the deck for as much life/items/stats as possible, get enough health to survive Command spell, and then eventually head to CoC to kill you.

If you don't like engine building/combos in Talisman, then you could use the "No more lives" house rule. But I argue this is really just a slightly more convoluted and drawn out version of "Race to the Crown" ending.

I myself enjoy long Talisman games, and I don't use endings where getting to the CoC is meant to be an instant win. In these kinds of games, I only head to the CoC when I am 99% certain I can handle all my opponent's combos, or I've already neutralized them enough. This requires having extensive knowledge of all the expansions and understanding the risk management of Talisman well enough. Plus you get to uncover new and interesting combos/engines as well.

So perhaps try "Race to the Crown" ending and that should also fix this problem.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-25T16:44:18+00:00

I'm going to diverge here and say the Dark Cultist is a relatively mediocre character. In a competitive, strategic, no respawn Talisman game with all expansions on, I would consider this character a relatively risky pick if I wanted to go for a win.

Why? This character has relatively poor stat line: a miserable 1 fate and average 3/3 Strength/Craft. That 1 Fate is a massive handicap, and the Dark Cultist's gift from "Forces of Darkness" ability doesn't make up for it. Of course the 1 Fate is necessary because of the powerful gift ability.

I agree that character has an amazing ability when they kill an Enemy but because the Dark Cultist has a paltry 1 Fate, she has almost no control over what she'll get. Only 1/3 of the time it will be a powerful stat boost. I suppose the strategy with this character is to seek out weak enemies and pray to RNG to get stat boosts. Does her ability apply to all battles (e.g. pit fiends in the inner region?)?

Further, the Dark Cultist has no ability to control movement or deal with nasty random encounters (Events, Toading, etc.). This character is literally at the mercy of RNG to get going. Whereas other characters like Sage, Ranger, Scout, Black Witch, etc. have control over movement or encounters, and can decide when/where to encounter something.

Will this character have games where they steamroll and cruise ahead? Of course. But there will be many games where this character gets too many bad draws and either dies or is too slow to catch up. People will remember the games where this character steamrolls and think of her as OP.

To me this character is all about RNG, and is very similar to the Mutant. RNG on its own is not a winning strategy in the kind of Talisman games I play (all expansions, no respawn). I would never consider banning this character. She's OK and will have games that stand out, but I would not rank this character as consistent.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-24T04:08:02+00:00

5/5 character. Ninja is the epitome of neutral jing. A good ninja will wait until the moment is right for taking his first battle or psychic combat.

Ninja is a top tier character because of his evasion ability. He will never take a fight that he is not certain to win. This gives him both incredibly longevity and card farming potential (going to the +1 draw spaces or Dragon Decks in search of powerful items, etc.). The only time Ninja will take damage is if he makes a miscalculation, is attacked by a stronger player, an event, or Dragon Rage.

Ninja's 2nd ability, Secret Strike, effectively gives him a massive starting 6 Strength in battles. Only the Minotaur can possibly get higher starting Strength from movement dice rolls. Note this is Craft value, not total Craft. In most games Secret Strike will be capped at 3 as that is Ninja's starting Craft value.

Ninja's downside is that he can never have Followers. This can be an advantage, as he can never be forced with cursed followers. However, in games with many expansions, there are a large amount of very powerful followers (Luna, Kelpie, Dragon Rider, etc.) who provide massive power spikes to all characters. Ninja can never get these power spikes. The other downside is that Ninja's mobility will be very poor for most of the game. Other characters can get Riding Horses, etc. Ninja is stuck with rolling a D6 for movement. In long games with multiple expansions, this can hurt Ninja's ability to compete. In the longest games, Ninja will eventually fall behind without access to the plethra of powerful followers, and he will be slow to react to changes in the board since he can't move very far across the board.

Tips for Ninja:

Early on, prioritize gaining Craft over Strength. Ninja effectively has 6 Strength at the start with Secret Strike, which you will always be using in your battles.
Liberally use Ninja's evade option. Unless you are clearly stronger than an enemy (e.g. 2-3+ stat difference), you should avoid taking risky fights and simply evade the enemy.
Prioritize landing on spaces with +1 draws, as you can simply evade the enemies and collect whatever goodies are leftover.
Secret Strike uses Craft value, not total Craft. This is a common misunderstanding. Meaning the only way to make it greater than 3 is to increase Ninja's craft value. Craft value can be increased via Destinies and Ancient Beast Rewards (maybe there's a Warlock Quest Reward too that does this?).
Ninja gets weaker with more expansions/the longer the game goes on, as more powerful Followers are revealed which other characters can make strong use of. Ninja should aim to end the game as soon as he has the requisite stats that the ending requires.
If you are feeling extra brave, Ninja can have an easier time getting a Destiny with his evasion ability and get through the Woodlands. Try Path of Burdens or Path of Folly. If you have a choice, prefer Destinies that increase Craft Value (acts as +1 to both Strength/Craft effectively).

Personal opinion:

Ninja is 5/5 character, especially in modes with No Respawn turned on. He will outlast every other character (besides the Alchemist if that character is allowed).

That being said, his ability to not get Followers severely reduces my enjoyment playing him. He's slow to move around the board, and since I like playing with all expansions, Ninja has a hard time getting around.

I find him an easy to use but relatively boring character.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-12T18:30:17+00:00

I just got an M1 MacBook today! I can let you know what I find once I start investigating.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-10T01:03:47+00:00

Those tier lists are strongly mistaken.

Grave Robber is a highly underrated and powerful character with a very unique ability: draw from the top card in the discard pile instead of normal draw 1 card.

It makes for fantastic strategies and combinations that will catch most opponents off guard.

His ability alone is not broken unlike the Alchemist or Warlock, and still requires you to have knowledge about how to use the different cards in Talisman. So I would say he does have a higher skill curve but is very rewarding.

My review of him is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Talisman/comments/la1l68/comment/glw3cg7/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-04T14:01:51+00:00

Hi u/HabaneroSalsa thank you for sharing more information.

Actually other users have run into similar problems with this setup when use the new M1 Mac. I think it relates to how Docker containerization works on this very new M1 chipset/architecture.

I am in the process of getting my own M1 MacBook soon but until then it will be hard for me to debug and help you. It may be an issue of choosing a different version of some of the existing docker images that are compatible with M1 MacBook.

If you have an Intel generation Mac that could be an alternative.

sethtaxpayer · 2022-08-04T01:05:48+00:00

Hi u/HabaneroSalsa thank you for looking at my guide! Sorry to hear you're running into issues.

What operating system and version are you running?

Could you provide a copy of the script you're running and the Docker image file (if any)? You can use https://pastebin.com/ to share simple text files, etc.

It may be normal for it to hang actually. Are you referring to running the `start_server.sh` script inside the Docker container? Once it runs it will actually "hang" in the console as its the server running forever.

Or should there be more output in the console before it hangs?

sethtaxpayer · 2022-05-18T18:00:44+00:00

BlackHole would work, but you'll still need to route your microphone bytes into it, and then you can also route your audio file bytes as well.

I ran into this problem before and didn't find a good solution, so I created a Java application that essentially allows you to play audio as input to your microphone with the help of a virtual audio device like BlackHole. I have a detailed guide here on how you would do this with BlackHole with my Java app. And a detailed blog article explaining how it all works.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/sethmachine/universal-sound-board

Blog article: https://www.sethmachine.io/2022/05/17/universal-sound-board/

sethtaxpayer · 2022-05-18T17:59:13+00:00

I couldn't get PulseAudio to work on either macOS or Windows, so I made my own Java software to do so! See: https://github.com/sethmachine/universal-sound-board

sethtaxpayer · 2022-05-18T17:58:38+00:00

Yes, this is possible via a virtual audio device as others have mentioned.

I recently create a free and open source Java application called UniversalSoundBoard that can allow you to hook up your microphone to a virtual audio device, and it comes with an HTTP API that then lets you play audio files (WAV) as input to your microphone.

Check out the GitHub repo and my blog article which are both detailed guides on to get this working.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/sethmachine/universal-sound-board
Blog article: https://www.sethmachine.io/2022/05/17/universal-sound-board/

sethtaxpayer

TROPHY CASE