Oldmandan

Rural download speeds interfered with the planned multiplayer run, so I've started a human (basically just for shield prof) GOOlock gish* playthrough (party not nailed down, but probably primarily Gale/Shadowheart/Karlach) so I can scratch the itch without spoiling too much content for myself.

*Devil's Sight works and Pact of the Blade is in, let's go. :P Might multi into Rogue, Fighter or Pally (or maybe Sorc, although w/o weapon cantrips that's less synergistic now) to maximize the memes, but I haven't decided.

Layoffs happen, stock goes up, bonuses go out, services suffer; while profits stay basically the same, because the other options are doing the same thing, and we no longer live in a world where these services are optional. Such is the cycle of modern capitalism. >>

Sweet. Been really enjoying things so far, but I've gotten a couple crashes on both DX11 and Vulkan, and the occasional weird/stuttery cutscene. Hopefully things run a little smoother afterwards.

The problem is, there isn't a simple one. We need changes at all levels of government to sort this out, between changes to regulations and taxation around property ownership and renting to meaningfully disincetivise housing as investment/housing going unused, initiatives to build more homes, and changes to zoning and urban planning to densify cities and speed residential construction. And I don't know if even all those things together would be enough, because I can't claim to understand the problem with enough completeness. /shurg

"Responsible, targeted" ah yes, because cutting spending below projections in literally all sectors during economic turmoil and high inflation is either of those things.

I told myself I wouldn't read unrelated papers at work, but here we are. :P Yeah, as expected, the actual paper is way more informative about the structural properties, and about the limitations. (Difficulty fabricating larger samples without voids, said voids resulting in much lower strengths and much less plasticity, uncertain tensile strength, etc.) Fascinatingly though, (at least to me, not having known the details about DNA based metamaterials :P) the details of the properties should be tunable by way of changing the DNA lattice structure. Which makes it a two-part engineering problem, figuring out how to manufacture it at scale, and determining optimal lattice structures for different applications. Definitely exciting, and will be big once we figure these things out.

But that's not really what I was talking about. While I get that this is an article geared to laymen/the general public, I do think we should be holding science communication to a higher standard. What was discovered is exciting, but we don't know how it can be used yet, or if it will ever be practical to do so. Overview is fine, I'd just like some more qualifiers and less speculation. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like some more care would do a lot to improve overall scientific literacy and trust in the scientific community. /shurg

Always a little annoyed at articles like this; "strength" doesn't tell me anything. If this is 5x more resistant than steel to deformation, but then shatters catastrophically, that limits its use cases substantially. Likewise, compressive, tensile and shear strength are all different properties, only one of which is referenced at all. Still very cool, and I look forward to seeing how it develops and learning more details about its capabilities (when I have more time I'll read the paper), but vague terminology like this has a bad habit of making stuff sound way more revolutionary than it actually is. /shurg

The only competition is in terms of time and money you want to put into it, and... IDK man buy whichever one you're more excited about first, buy the other when you have money and time to play it. /shurg Hell, wait long enough and you might even get it on sale.

TBH, I think at least part of it is the tendency for companies to exploit human nature for profit; it's not necessarily a gaming community thing as it is a "tribalism is a convenient way to establish and maintain a consumer base, and it's been ingrained to the point it crops up even when the publishers/companies in question aren't actively cultivating it," thing.

I'm hopeful that both will exist, but who knows. Use the 'poles too much, get weird dreams and certain, pre-set powers. But you could have so much more if you were willing to speed the process along...

Eh... it tracks well enough I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. Right wing talking heads push so hard at young men, it's fucking exhausting. And the slightest attempt to engage with or learn about current events and politics tends to lead to social media algorithms jamming alt-right nonsense down your throat, because that reactionary, provocative/offensive content generates more engagement. And so much of it is trying to frame the normal struggles of growing up (sex and sexuality, responsibility and expectation, growing independence (fiscal and otherwise) etc, etc) as things being inflicted on them by others, things thay can be simply solved by stripping power from these groups. (Immigrants, women, people of colour, LGBTQIA+, etc.)

I can't remember what interview it was from, but IIRC, it's not that it's an unsolvable problem, it's in the standard they wished to hold dialogue to. A swap is easy, a swap that feels natural is not. The exponential explosion of little tweaks and permutations was outside the scope they were willing/able to add before release. (Presumably they are under some pressure to release, not just from fans, but from WotC, and the logistics of keeping the company afloat.) Which I can respect, although I both anticipate and fully understand the need for mods to do the swap.

My big thing is to avoid hard numbers wherever possible. EG, you've got a big spooky encounter with complicated abilities, passive/lair effects, etc etc; it's health pool is whatever the plot demands. :P Realize you underestimated the raw dps of your players? Bump that health up until it has a chance to show off what it can do and feel like a threat. Realize this thing will just murder the hell out of them? Tune it down until they only need 1-2 good hits to bring it down before they're out. Similar with saving throws, bonuses to hit, ac, etc. I usually don't commit to anything until at least a round or two has passed. Much easier to balance the interplay of complicated features and abilities after you've seen what they can do, and there's no reason you can't do that on the fly, assuming your players trust you to want them to have the best experience possible.