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The Shout Thread

CABAL

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I forget, is it possible to load A2 on Win10 or is that a lost cause?
I believe you need the patch the FO team made, but other than that it should work fine. FO itself works out of the box so you could also install that and the Classic Mod.
 

CABAL

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My paycheck finally showed up. The person who writes (or wrote, rather) said checks was recently arrested for embezzling $20,000 from the company, which explains the delay.
 

dvatreknerd314

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I've been playing STO for how long now and I hadn't explored the epohh fields yet.
 

CABAL

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I just devised a new enemy scaling system for open-world games and I wish I had a way to test it that doesn't involve building a whole new game from scratch because I think it would work pretty well.

Essentially there are currently three approaches to enemy scaling which are, in order of appearance, no scaling at all, everything in the world scaled to you, and a newer one that's gaining traction, scaling within a range. The first is self explanatory and the second is pretty simple (if you're level 1 so is everything else, if you're level 5 so is everything else), but the third is slightly more complex. When using what I will refer to as 'range scaling' enemies in a particular area, whether it is something like a dungeon or a chunk of the overworld, will scale with you as in full scaling, however, they also have a hard minimum and maximum level, which I call the level floor and level ceiling. Let's say the level range on a cave is 20-30 and you stumble on it at level 3. The enemies inside will be level 20. They will also be level 20 if you enter at level 8, level 15, or level 20. At level 21 they will start to level with you, but they will not go above level 30. This means if you stumble across it at level 70 the enemies within will still be level 30 and far too easy. The result is that you're more likely to be at an appropriate level when you find it than if there was no scaling at all, and you don't find wolves that could tear apart that dragon that gave you trouble a few levels ago like in full scaling, but you can still enter at a wildly inappropriate level and find yourself one-shotted by the first enemy or one-shotting everything in your path, including the boss. It's better than the first two methods, but there's still room for improvement.

My idea is what I will call 'soft range scaling'. Where range scaling has hard floors and ceilings, soft range scaling has soft floors and ceilings. What I mean by this is that when your level is out of the target range the enemies still scale to you, but at a rate below 1:1.

Let's look at that cave again but change the hard range of 20-30 to a soft range of 20-30. Let's say the out-of-range scaling is 2:1, to keep the math simple. You enter the cave at level 1. If it was still a hard range you would find a horde of level 20 enemies and promptly die, but since it's a soft range they've been eased up a bit for you and are only level 10. Still too much for you, but not so ridiculous and maybe you can get to safety without dying and reloading if you're quick. You come back later and you're level 10, but the enemies inside have leveled with you and are now level 15. They're leveling slower so you're catching up, but they're still pretty challenging at this point. You come in at level 16 and the enemies are level 18. Now you're in business. These guys are tough, but you're close enough to their level that you can clear the cave with some skill and tenacity. Between levels 20 and 30 they pick up the pace and keep level with you. You're now in the Goldilocks zone where the enemies aren't too tough or too easy but are just right. But what happens if you find it at level 50? You would find level 40 enemies. These guys are stronger than they were when you were in the target range, but they haven't kept up with you and are relatively easy. That they're lagging behind only becomes more apparent as you continue to level, being only level 60 when you're level 90, but they get easier all the time while taking longer to become trivial than if they were being leveled within a hard range. By using soft floors and soft ceilings you make it so that dungeons and zones don't become obsolete so soon after the target level or range, but also don't too badly punish the player for going to areas they aren't expected to go yet, cutting down on the sense of being railroaded.

And that's soft range scaling. I think it has the potential to greatly improve the open-world experience, but I can't think of a good way to mod it into a game and I don't have the time to build a whole open-world game from scratch to prototype it. I just wanted to get it out there to see what people think.
 

kjc733

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So I dug out my old XP PC, started up Maya v5 and... I want to cry :cry:
It feels sooooo sluggish and crude compared to the later version on the new PC. And it seems I tinkered with quite a few meshes in the new version, so I can't even open some of m more recent work due to compatibility issues.
I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go down the monthly subscription route for the latest version o_O
 

SciFiFan

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I just devised a new enemy scaling system for open-world games and I wish I had a way to test it that doesn't involve building a whole new game from scratch because I think it would work pretty well.

Essentially there are currently three approaches to enemy scaling which are, in order of appearance, no scaling at all, everything in the world scaled to you, and a newer one that's gaining traction, scaling within a range. The first is self explanatory and the second is pretty simple (if you're level 1 so is everything else, if you're level 5 so is everything else), but the third is slightly more complex. When using what I will refer to as 'range scaling' enemies in a particular area, whether it is something like a dungeon or a chunk of the overworld, will scale with you as in full scaling, however, they also have a hard minimum and maximum level, which I call the level floor and level ceiling. Let's say the level range on a cave is 20-30 and you stumble on it at level 3. The enemies inside will be level 20. They will also be level 20 if you enter at level 8, level 15, or level 20. At level 21 they will start to level with you, but they will not go above level 30. This means if you stumble across it at level 70 the enemies within will still be level 30 and far too easy. The result is that you're more likely to be at an appropriate level when you find it than if there was no scaling at all, and you don't find wolves that could tear apart that dragon that gave you trouble a few levels ago like in full scaling, but you can still enter at a wildly inappropriate level and find yourself one-shotted by the first enemy or one-shotting everything in your path, including the boss. It's better than the first two methods, but there's still room for improvement.

My idea is what I will call 'soft range scaling'. Where range scaling has hard floors and ceilings, soft range scaling has soft floors and ceilings. What I mean by this is that when your level is out of the target range the enemies still scale to you, but at a rate below 1:1.

Let's look at that cave again but change the hard range of 20-30 to a soft range of 20-30. Let's say the out-of-range scaling is 2:1, to keep the math simple. You enter the cave at level 1. If it was still a hard range you would find a horde of level 20 enemies and promptly die, but since it's a soft range they've been eased up a bit for you and are only level 10. Still too much for you, but not so ridiculous and maybe you can get to safety without dying and reloading if you're quick. You come back later and you're level 10, but the enemies inside have leveled with you and are now level 15. They're leveling slower so you're catching up, but they're still pretty challenging at this point. You come in at level 16 and the enemies are level 18. Now you're in business. These guys are tough, but you're close enough to their level that you can clear the cave with some skill and tenacity. Between levels 20 and 30 they pick up the pace and keep level with you. You're now in the Goldilocks zone where the enemies aren't too tough or too easy but are just right. But what happens if you find it at level 50? You would find level 40 enemies. These guys are stronger than they were when you were in the target range, but they haven't kept up with you and are relatively easy. That they're lagging behind only becomes more apparent as you continue to level, being only level 60 when you're level 90, but they get easier all the time while taking longer to become trivial than if they were being leveled within a hard range. By using soft floors and soft ceilings you make it so that dungeons and zones don't become obsolete so soon after the target level or range, but also don't too badly punish the player for going to areas they aren't expected to go yet, cutting down on the sense of being railroaded.

And that's soft range scaling. I think it has the potential to greatly improve the open-world experience, but I can't think of a good way to mod it into a game and I don't have the time to build a whole open-world game from scratch to prototype it. I just wanted to get it out there to see what people think.


Might want to consider to reach out to one of those Minecraft modders that makes RPG mods. Might be a worth while venture to team up with one to implement and see what the community thinks. Just a thought.
 

CABAL

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I wonder if there really is an ancient Vorlon god that looks like a humanoid with a bucket on their head...
 

FlowRellik

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Times like this I wish I had enough cash spared for a nice External hard drive for my stuff. I wonder, do SSDs do a better job than regular hard drives?
 

CABAL

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Times like this I wish I had enough cash spared for a nice External hard drive for my stuff. I wonder, do SSDs do a better job than regular hard drives?
For long-term storage you still want HDDs. The SSD advantage is that they're faster and that fragmentation is irrelevant, but they still lag behind in both capacity and longevity, though they are getting better on both fronts.
 

FlowRellik

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At least that's a plus to hear. Truth be told I'm a bit confused to pick which because on one side I got storage, but the other side has speed :D.
 

Hellkite

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HDD

would be your best bet on storage and cost
 

CABAL

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My puppy just ate out of the litter box.o_O
 

SciFiFan

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My puppy just ate out of the litter box.o_O
That's nothing. I once had a dog that would pop-a-squat and then immediately turn around and eat what he just dropped. Never let that dog lick me after I seen that. :yuck:
 

CABAL

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I just had a wonderful game idea. It's a mix of Carrier Command, Black Flag, and a tiny bit of Crusader Kings. It's set in an alternate timeline where Nassau's Pirate Republic was a success rather than it being crushed by the British navy. You would be a pirate taking islands in the Caribbean to add to the Republic as a whole while also trying to move up through the pirate pecking order to rule the Republic yourself.

I wish I had the time to actually make all these ideas.
 

Terra_Inc

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I wish I had the time to actually make all these ideas.

You know, I'd love to collaborate with you at some point. ;)
 

CABAL

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Finally got a trailer for Solo.


I'm excited!
 

kjc733

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I usually find Star Wars trailers to be better than the films, but in this case, I'm just not feeling it.
 

CABAL

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So, as I was leaving this morning, I heard a thump from my room right after I closed my door. I knew the pets were all out of the room so I didn't think much of it. As it turns out, my cork board had fallen off my wall, taking my framed Episode I poster with it, and barricaded the door. As you walk in, there's a wall a few inches after the door. It's part of the closet. It's also what the cork board was hanging off of. And, as it turns out, the cork board's height is exactly the length of the distance between the door and the wall. Go figure.

Anyway, I got in eventually after shoving various things under the door to try and pop the cork board and poster up. On the one hand I have access to my bedroom and have hung up the things in entirely different locations. On the other hand, the poster's plastic panel thingy is now very scratched up and has some cracks. I wonder how much it would take to get it re-framed...
 

Jetfreak

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Ooh, that's spooky, its always the prequels that get hammered, in any form. Speaking of which, Natalie Portman was on SNL recently, and prequelmemes over at reddit are having a field day.

The Solo trailer is still 50/50 for me though.
 

Archonon

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I am cautiously optimistic on Solo but that is only because I am still giving Disney a lot of good will following the excellent Rogue One. But that is as far as it goes. I will give Solo and the Obi-Wan movie a shot, not really interested in Boba Fett's movie.

For me these side stories, if done right like Rogue One was done, will fit in nicely alongside the real Star Wars movies, if only as spinoff tales. That said, unlike Marvel, I despise what Disney has done to Star Wars with their sequels in name only.

I hope Solo lives up to RO.
 

Terra_Inc

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And now for something completely different. A musician by the name of Julian Velard figured out that HP Lovecraft's 1917 poem "Nemesis" can, in fact, be sung to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man". The 'lyrics' can be found here.

 

CABAL

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Okami HD is 30% off on Steam. If you have never played Okami you are seriously missing out.
 

FlowRellik

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I tried Okami in the past. I wish I bought the game :D. Awesome gameplay + an immerse soundtrack and even easter eggs? I'm all in for it + Amaterasu was in MVC3.
 

Hellkite

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@CABAL

I found your cookies
41TzMhiED7L.jpg
a lot less silicon in them than I thought it would be​
 

CABAL

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Civilization 5 Complete is currently $12.49 USD on Humble, for anyone interested. Also a reminder that there's a Civ5 match most every Sunday and new folks are welcome.

Edit: Civilization Beyond Earth is also in the sale (along with the Rising Tide expansion), and we sometimes play that, too.
 

FlowRellik

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Screw it it's a shout thread
EVERYONE DO THE KLINGON POLKA!!!
IwHjnzW.jpg
 

Hellkite

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He said the P word ... @CABAL Fire up the Probulator setting 9

 

FlowRellik

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BACK OFF YOU! I HAVE STOLEN AGONIZERS (For work *shrugs*) and a Fabled Klingon Chef with a Weapon ACCORDIAN! All I need is a Slaphappy Romulan that can stick a boxing glove on a Warbird as a melee weapon!
 

CABAL

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You know, I really like how after G'Kar gets ousted from his position as ambassador people start calling him Citizen G'Kar as though 'citizen' were a title. It's a wonderful little bit of defiance.
 

Hellkite

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Well it was Londo that call him that ... He meant it as an insult at the time ,but G'Kar turned it into a badge of honor.

 
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