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Latest Comments by Philadelphus
The first handheld to use PlaytronOS is some Web3 thing - the SuiPlay0x1
10 April 2024 at 6:12 pm UTC Likes: 6

I'm sure it's just the render, but I can't unsee that little USB-C port floating attached to the back of the thing instead of being inside it.

Arch Linux changes vm.max_map_count to match Fedora, Ubuntu for better gaming
8 April 2024 at 7:26 pm UTC Likes: 1

So for those of us who don't know, what would upping this actually help with, and how would one know if one was running into problems with it in the first place?

Crypt of the NecroDancer just got a Hatsune Miku DLC
4 April 2024 at 6:31 pm UTC Likes: 5

Well, that's a collection of words I never expected to read as a headline.

Screenbound is a platformer where you play in 2D and 3D together
3 April 2024 at 6:47 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: buckysrevengeJust imagine playing this on your Steam Deck while walking around
And in VR!

Stop Killing Games is a new campaign to stop developers making games unplayable
3 April 2024 at 6:42 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: CatKillerFull automatic refunds for every copy when a company kills the game is much simpler, and removes most of the financial incentive for that undesirable behaviour (you've still given them an interest-free loan, after all).
I immediately see some loopholes that would have to be addressed; what does it mean to "kill" a game? Yes, taking down all the servers of a game where players can't host servers would be killing it, no question there. What about leaving exactly one server (that can handle, say, 12 players max) online? Not technically killing it, even though the other (say) 49,988 people who bought the game can't play it if the server is full.

Not that I'm against game preservation — I'm all for it, and best of luck to Ross — I just think it's complicated. I guess I'm more in the open-sourcing camp.

Multiplayer comes to Cassette Beasts on May 20th
30 March 2024 at 8:48 pm UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: Pyretic
Quoting: PhiladelphusI'm still looking for a game that has exactly what I want in a Pokémon-like on PC

Out of curiosity, what IS your ideal Pokemon game?
Heh, I've thought about this a lot, so apologies if I get verbose here…

The thing that first drew to me Pokémon, as a ~9 year-old watching his friend play the first-generation games (I've never actually had a Nintendo system of my own), was the concept of being a Fantasy Biologist. (In essence, I connected with the original idea of the games being about "digital bug-collecting" for urban kids.) I enjoy the complexity of the battling system too, but a lot of that complexity comes through the complexity of the 'mons themselves, with so many different types and moves (and later abilities). So for a setting, I'd like to see something like either the first humans migrating into the Americas over the Bering land bridge, or an astrobiologist landing on a planet, some setting with new and exciting lifeforms to discover, that thrill of exploration and encountering the unknown.

Another thing I'd like in my ideal game is multiplayer (hence my comment above), and specifically I'd love it to have a feel something like playing Stardew Valley with friends: something you can take at your own pace, play together, play apart, relax with some low-intensity crop-watering or gear up and take on the mines. Pokémon except instead of NPC rivals it's your own friends out there competing in friendly battles, getting up to hijinx, just doing crazy things for the fun of it, that sort of thing.

To go along with the theme of exploration, it'd be neat if the world map wasn't static, but procedurally generated to some extent so that every new game comes with surprises and the fun of finding out what's behind the next hill. This might not be quite RimWorld/Dwarf Fortress/Minecraft levels of generating the entire world (though that might be fun in its own way); perhaps something like general guidelines to a region, then filled in XCOM 2-style with smaller and smaller hand-made random elements. (Like if routes in Pokémon always connected the same places and had the same general shape, but could have randomly-varying internal layouts.)

Circling back to the creatures themselves, I'd like them to be to complex and with a better simulation of a real ecosystem. Not just random encounters, but you could find them going about their lives in the world, maybe getting into some emergent situations, perhaps something like Rain World's detailed creature AIs. Actually simulating a real ecology might be too taxing, but there are probably a lot of things that could be done to make the world feel more alive (a day/night cycle and seasons with seasonal behavior would be cool!). And while I'm dreaming, all of it being easily moddable would be great, so people could add their own creatures, biomes, map pieces, moves, etc., etc.

So, yeah, it's a pretty specific picture I have; various monster-catching games have come close in different ways, but I'm still waiting for something to really get into. Hopefully the fact that we're starting to see more of them on PC means I'll get something I want sooner or later.

The Triple-i Initiative gaming showcase is coming April 10th
29 March 2024 at 6:39 pm UTC

Hmm, 7am in Hawaii…on a Wednesday…it does sound interesting though. Maybe I'll see about tuning in.

Multiplayer comes to Cassette Beasts on May 20th
29 March 2024 at 6:35 pm UTC Likes: 4

I'm still looking for a game that has exactly what I want in a Pokémon-like on PC; Cassette Beasts, Tem-Tem, Coromon, Monster Sanctuary, none of them are quite there, but we're getting closer, and multiplayer like this is one of the things I'd like, so I'm happy to see this addition.

KDE Plasma app Ark gets support for self-extracting .exe archive files
27 March 2024 at 6:25 am UTC

I was wondering if there were any security implications. (I don't run KDE so it's of no particular concern to me either way, just curious.)

Nova, a Rust-based Linux driver for NVIDIA GPUs announced
27 March 2024 at 5:11 am UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: radube
Quoting: ToddLI hope no one thinks Nova means "no go" in Spanish because if they can't get their replacement working out right, then you know the name sounds appropriate. However, I'm sure in due time, they'll sort it out and hopefully, make something better than Nouveau. Now, I must be feeling old because that name reminds me of the early 2000s with trying to get those Nvidia cards working on Linux with little success.

I suppose you are sarcastic about the "no go" driver, but just for the record to mention:

Nova means "New" (female gendered) in several Indo-european languages, same like Nouveau which means "New" (male gendered) in French.
I look forward to the eventual replacements Nuevo, Nieuw, Nou, Novu, Neu, Nua…