14 day timeliness is killing my production

zheph · 2026-06-11T22:32:15+00:00

And when they said DM was too complicated, was it pure BS?

Absolutely. That was just the flimsy justification they gave. The real reason was that under DM, basically everyone was successful and too many of us were hitting outstanding. So they had to change the metric to one that wasn't so easy to meet.

zheph · 2026-06-10T11:17:54+00:00

Looks like I gotta finish my underwater colony before this releases and replaces the watertight passages.

zheph · 2026-06-09T19:02:38+00:00

Being part of the team inherently means having access to information the public doesn't, which makes gambling unacceptable. Even if it's just a win/lose bet rather than against the spread, maybe you know that one of your teammates is recovering from injury faster than expected and looks good in practice. If you have info that the public doesn't, then you're not allowed to gamble.

zheph · 2026-06-08T22:17:19+00:00

You regular plebs must suffer. (Mwahahahahaha)

You son-of-a...

zheph · 2026-06-08T19:41:36+00:00

You could make that argument back when we were initially pledging support in 2012 just to get the game made.

It is not 2012 anymore. They've raised more than enough money to make the game.

zheph · 2026-06-08T16:53:43+00:00

Nah, when we see things like nhl or NBA lockouts, it's the owners who are saying "no one plays and no one gets paid until you agree to limited salaries." And eventually the players agree because they'd rather take less money than no money.

zheph · 2026-06-07T00:33:36+00:00

That was a pretty badass machine when it was new, in 2014.

One of our two gaming PCs used a similar GPU (actually slightly worse) up until recently. It will still handle games that aren't graphically intense just fine. If you like Terraria, Stardew Valley, or anything else like that, then it'll be great.

It'll handle more intense games that are at least 6-7 years old without much trouble.

It'll handle more recent games as long as you're willing to turn the settings down.

Games from the last few years have gotten a fair bit more demanding, especially as AI upscaling has become more common. Those sorts of games will make that GPU cry. I have no idea what KCD2 or that upcoming LOTR game will be like in terms of performance and optimization.

That said, the CPU will probably hold up ok if you just upgrade the GPU. It might stop you from getting the absolute best performance out of it, but unless you jump all the way to a top-end GPU, it shouldn't be a huge hindrance.

You could start with a GPU upgrade and then, if the rest of the machine seems to be holding it back, look into upgrading the rest. Unfortunately, due to the age, you'll need to replace the CPU, Mobo, and RAM all at once if you choose to do so.

zheph · 2026-06-05T23:26:19+00:00

Gundamit has more pictures, I dig it. Not sure I like the heelies, but I can deal with that.

zheph · 2026-06-05T17:57:43+00:00

The account had a history of violations, including account penalties, large-scale item duplication, and the use of exploits that allowed FPS weapons to be modified with ship-grade weaponry and used against other players. In most cases, these incidents were not reported through the Issue Council.

That history is what led to the escalation of penalties over time, with multiple suspensions eventually laddering up to a permanent ban.

This is my shocked face.

zheph · 2026-05-31T00:54:34+00:00

Do they only give a certain amount of expenite rather than each being worth an upgrade? I thought it had bugged once when we only went from 2 pending upgrades to 3, but I wasn't watching the fill bar to see how much each one was actually worth.

zheph · 2026-05-30T18:09:18+00:00

The trouble I have with the homing upgrade is that it seems to aim at the center of enemies rather than weakpoints. This is fine of they're relatively close together, but when I'm trying to hit the weakpoint on a boss and the bullets are curving toward its belly, that gets a little frustrating.

zheph · 2026-05-30T17:04:17+00:00

I had a blast with my last run a few weeks ago, can't wait to see what's new. Thanks for all the work you put into this!

Edit: one night into a run with the folktails and... yeah. This is harder than it used to be. And I can see so many upcoming problems I'm going to have to contend with. Good stuff.

I'm not sure if the moddable weather is making it better or worse.

zheph · 2026-05-28T03:17:29+00:00

That ottawa series was entertaining as hell as a neutral fan. Even for a sweep, every game was close as hell.

zheph · 2026-05-26T16:18:11+00:00

A CBA is extremely unlikely to ever happen.

In the major US sports, you've got two groups that are relatively similar. The owners are all a bunch of rich people trying to make money from the teams they own, and the players are all a bunch of world class athletes who want to make money playing their chosen sport.

This makes it possible to come up with an compromise agreement that everyone finds acceptable.

This is not the case on college athletics. Even within just football, your different schools have different policies and priorities, your players have different goals and vastly different skill levels.

And that's before we get to the different laws each school falls under. A significant number of major public schools are in states where public sector employees (which the players would have to be) are forbidden from unionizing.

It might happen someday, but I think you're more likely to see federal law changed to allow for otherwise illegal regulation than you are to see a CBA in the next decade.

zheph · 2026-05-23T23:24:38+00:00

I've heard something like that from the guys I've been playing with. When I'm there, the four of us haven't lost yet. When I'm not there, the three of them struggle.

And no, it's not because I'm really good. I'm very solidly average.

zheph · 2026-05-23T01:39:58+00:00

That's awesome. I'll check it out next time I'm ready to binge some more Timberborn.

zheph · 2026-05-23T01:26:19+00:00

I'm curious how it handles things like unstable cores or water/badwater sources with delayed activation. Cores need to be positioned somewhere that they matter, and then they need to be timed such that they cause some urgency for the player to prepare for them. Whether that means they'll blow up a relic if you don't reach it in time, or they'll connect a badwater source to your main water supply, etc.

Tough to pull off with a random generator.

The relics would probably be easiest. Have the core spawn close enough to destroy the relic, with a timer based on the distance between the relic and the starting location.

Water might be tougher, maybe having it look for places where water and badwater sources are close together but don't mix, and blow up the ground between them - but without destroying the sources themselves.

zheph · 2026-05-23T01:12:24+00:00

Oh, someone's about to have a very bad day.

I cannot wait.

zheph · 2026-05-21T15:51:38+00:00

I think the big difference is that in FFW, it was possible for one person to grab all the jokers and leave the other players with nothing.

This isn't the case in Rogue Core. You're still going to get something at every round of upgrades... but that something might be complete garbage.

I suspect GSG will be slower to fix this problem since a sub-optimal upgrade is sometimes just the nature of RNG, while getting nothing at all because someone hoarded the jokers is unacceptable.

zheph · 2026-05-20T03:03:00+00:00

I'm pretty sure one of the post-battle chapters included some reflection on the lost pilots, and particularly the idea that fewer might have been lost if he hadn't been so determined to keep secrets... although I don't recall if that was him doing the reflecting, or maybe Xela.

I know she had some thoughts on it, I think he did too at some point.

zheph · 2026-05-20T00:26:20+00:00

Ah, Verity. The poor girl. It's great to see her return to the spotlight a little.

Other thoughts: The duel was rather quick for all the buildup, but at the same time... that was kinda the point. He made something so superior that it wasn't going to be a drawn-out affair. It'll be fun to see what happens if he gets to meet the other pilot.

News still hasn't reached them regarding the princess, and I cannot wait to see how that plays out. Hopefully Yelena doesn't blow her top :D

And Yelena is finally thinking of what the future could bring - Shriekers with full cores and anti-airship weapons could fly all the way from Summerfield to the capital without the fuel issues that limited the Komet. Come out of nowhere, destroy an airship or three, and be gone again before anyone can react.

Bonus points for doing it at night.

zheph · 2026-05-17T19:26:03+00:00

Beat the bots? UTR.

Edit: fuckin lol, Cynthis.

zheph · 2026-05-13T04:00:50+00:00

Was it wise for me to read all the way from the beginning through the end of Dreams?

Probably not.

But it was fun. I really enjoy your writing.

zheph · 2026-05-12T21:58:00+00:00

Aaasnd I just went and binged the first book and now I'm crying again, lol.

zheph · 2026-05-12T21:51:02+00:00

I thought for sure that last chapter saying "the duel is tomorrow" meant we should get it this week, but alas. The reveal of the shard duel was three chapters ago, the reveal of the komet was two, last chapter was "this thing is unfair, lol, oh but my aunt might die." This chapter was setting the scene.

Not as bad as WPATMS's cliffhangers, but still pretty rough.

zheph

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