Late post sorry about that.

I've been playing a lot of UFO 50. Finished golfaria and started night manor.

Also played through the puzzle game escape from mystwood mansion. It was decent. A little short but good overall.

The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!

I've finally caved and paid 50 euros for a second hand copy of Astro Bot on PS5, and it is absolutely incredible. I know this game is only available to PS5 players, so I broadened the topic...

Let's discuss your favorite Platformers. What is your favorite game or series? What do you love about these games? Are there things you don't like about the genre? Feel free to share anything that comes up and react to other comments. Let's get the conversation going!

If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).

Previous entries: Uplifting Games, Final Fantasy, Visual Novels, Hollow Knight, Nintendo DS, Monster Hunter, Persona, Monkey Island, 8 Bit Era, Animal Crossing, Age of Empires, Super Mario, Deus Ex, Stardew Valley, The Sims, Half-Life, Earthbound / Mother, Mass Effect, Metroid, Journey, Resident Evil, Polybius, Tetris, Telltale Games, Kirby, LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire

Whatcha playing?

I slowed down a bit on shadow of the erdtree, but still working through it. I have every remembrance except the last one. I also started the riven remake and just finished getting all achievements last night. 10/10 remake. It's really good!

How an off-hours project, a rising YouTuber, and a unique Discord-driven release strategy came together for a game-of-the-year candidate.

Other than Smite, what video games have a lot of playable mythological pantheons? I already know about Megami Tensei, Persona, and Fate video games, what about others?

> Hundreds of Bethesda video game workers, who work on titles like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls, are going on strike across the country. Workers in Maryland and Texas are walking off the job, claiming that the company has failed to address their remote work concerns at the bargaining table, and has begun outsourcing quality assurance work without the union's agreement.

> The union is looking to limit the percentage of quality assurance testers the company outsources in comparison to the number of full-time workers present in its bargaining unit. It would not share details on where Microsoft has chosen to outsource labor to. > > The union is also seeking a more flexible remote work policy. ZeniMax workers are currently required to go to the office twice a week, and many, the union says, are being denied their remote work requests. Eichner says that the company has repeatedly ignored the union's remote work proposal.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/25192334

> This is a heavily cut playtest of my revived Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick and Cougar throttle quadrant of my ViperPit. Both were refitted for USB-C with Arduino Pro Micros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc > > The cockpit panel is part of my VF-1 inspired home cockpit which interfaces with X4 via a homebrew Lua socket I programmed. You can read more of this on the dedicated project page at https://simpit.dev/ > > The game is X4: Foundations with the Battlestar Galactica mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1167 > > If you enjoy SimPit|s (or any home cockpit / simulated cockpit) and Battlestar Galactica make sure to also check the awesome Colonial Viper builds of https://www.youtube.com/@projectcolonialviper2094 and https://www.youtube.com/@BuildsByBaz 🤘

This one flew under my radar so far (haha, sorry):

> Rescue the civilians, race the clock, and raze the enemy in MH-Zombie, the world’s only helicopter arcade simulator! Three flight physics modes, three difficulty modes, and a tutorial mode provide a stepped learning curve and wider accessibility to realistic helicopter flight.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1429350/MHZombie

The reason this came to my attention is because it’s one of the few games that [just] implemented head tracking via UDP e.g. available by OpenTrack (and various others). This is great because it doesn’t force people to jump the hoops of TrackIR, which is only supported for Windows and officially limited to their proprietary devices. See this in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGFdO7VXiY

Apparently it’s written for mobile games but runs on PC as well – that seems to include Linux PC which even makes this a LinuxGaming title! 🤓

I don’t know about you but for 3 bucks I’ll totally get this for the occasional pew pew fun. Game seems to be a labour of love so sharing is highly appreciated.

Steam store pages received a new Anti-cheat field. Disclosure is mandatory for kernel-level anti-cheat solutions. And recommended for other anti-cheat solutions (like server-side or non-kernel-level client-side).

The field discloses the anti-cheat product, whether it is a kernel-level installation, and whether it uninstalls with the product or requires manual removal to remove.

!Screenshot of anti-cheat indications

[alt text: a 4-panel comic by Safely Endangered. The first panel depicts Kirby in the doctor's office, telling a doctor, "I don't feel well". The doctor resembles Dr. Mario. In the second panel, the doctor is placing his stethoscope on Kirby's "chest" and saying, " Ok, breathe in." The third panel depicts Kirby inhaling and sucking the doctor's entire body into his mouth. The fourth and final panel shows Kirby wearing the doctor's head mirror, and he is standing in the doorway of the doctor's office, looking at the receptionist, and saying, "Sharon, send in my next patient".]

Invidious, an alternative YouTube client in the browser without using YouTube directly (more private): https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=VH_8arwuRz8

Video Description:

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This is why I don't download game mods. Another backdoor has been found, this time in a popular modular for City Skylines 2 by paradox games. Checkout what happened in this video.

reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/1gh4qp0/popular_mod_for_a_game_may_have_been_malicious_no

> This game is so pointless and forgettable that I can't even be bothered to write a description. It sucks, don't play it. Watch my video instead! > > #ubisoft #nft #garbage

I am a really big fan of base building in RTS games, which is why I never liked Starcraft. Bases in Starcraft feel like they have such little rhyme or reason. They are messy and ugly. I always build a ton of bases in games like Tiberian Sun, that, while gameplay wise, are a waste of time and money, feel fun to build and fun to defend and destroy. I think a really cool strategy game idea would be a logistics themed game. One where building more realistic bases all over a map is a strategy so that they can supply and support each other. Maybe you start out with a FOB and you need to expand into guerilla held territory, but you need to build COPs and Logistics centers to keep your troops supplied and protected.

I always hated in Starcraft how clicks per second is a means to measure how effective some one is at the game. I really want to see a game where tactics and unit composition matter, where a platoon of mechanized infantry face off against like a BTR platoon and, using strategy, you pull through. Have each squad with a realistic composition of like a Squad leader, 2 team leaders, a radio man, 2 squad weapons, a crew served weapon, 2 anti tank units, a combat life saver, and 2 rifle men. I think something with that depth, but with a more coherant interface than like Shockforce, and with pausable real time combat would be awesome. Like Arma but an RTS.

What games would you want to see?

After a few weeks trying out different shmups, I finally got around to playing Radiant Silvergun.

tl;dr I like it

I am considering starting a new world and I am currently trying different seeds. heres some I recently found by using three of the mod usernames.

Seed: alyaza You spawn at the boarder of a flower forest and a beach.

Seed: Gaywallet You spawn in a jungle with a river nearby with a village on the other side of the river. Seed: Lionir You start in a Savanna right next to a beach.

These are some pretty interesting seeds.

Also I did my own as a seed.

seed: Gamers_mate You spawn in a jungle next to a small beach with a dark small dark forest on the shoreline of the beach.

Edit: I forgot to mention I tested these seeds in 1.21.3 (Java) Depending on the minecraft version you use you may get a different result for the same seed. Also it is case sensitive so using any capital letters will give you a different seed.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/24694356

> This video is how I gutted my already modified old Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick of my ViperPit and made it work again with the help of an Arduino Pro Micro. This flight stick (and also the other peripherals) do belong in a museum but where’s the fun in that? I modified it and now it’s a generic USB joystick that works on any recent system. I focus mostly on the 5x5 button matrix since this is the hardest part to understand. In the end are a few minutes of playing X4 Foundations with it to give it a good test run. Now it just needs some oil for the creaking 😅 > > https://makertube.net/w/qrqqZLr2QvJFjCwyNzzAmp / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

Hello there, gamers!

Ever since the handheld boom since 2022, I wanted to use one because of the concept; play any game anywhere and without the annoyances of a PC. I bought a Steam Deck OLED earlier this year, but because of personal reasons I am now using an ROG Ally (Got it at a huge discount) . This is my experience of using the device for over 3 weeks now.

Disclaimer: I am a Linux user (Left Windows in 2016) and I don't play games which require anti-cheats, so this post might seem biased. However, I'll try to be as much factual as possible. I'll list the pros and cons of both the OSs as per my personal experience.

The Windows experience

There is nothing new to say, everyone knows the first bootup process. Enter your mandatory Microsoft account to access the device. I know there are workarounds for a local account but I didn't want to jinx it. You get greeted with Armory Crate which shows how to manage your device.

Positives with Windows on the ROG Ally

• Launch any game with no restrictions. It's just a Windows PC.
• Nearly everything works out of the box (Not everything though)
• Asus's Armory Crate (AC) is decent at what it does
• Asus's BIOS is very well made
• AMD's software center offers lots of options regarding graphical fidelity

Annoyances with Windows on the ROG Ally

• [major] The OS is not controller-centric at all, this is probably my main gripe about the device.
  • A user buys a handheld and expects it to behave like a handheld.
  • Steam's big picture mode helps but it's severely restricted in terms of capabilities.
• [major] Certain games (usually older) do not install smoothly on the device.
  • You have to manually tinker to get it working.
  • Tinkering on a touch-screen device is not a fun experience.
• [major] Game launchers other than Steam do not support a controller OOTB.
  • GOG Galaxy/Amazon Games does not support
  • I did not try Epic, but the last I heard it also does not support a controller.
• [major] No central hub to control all system/graphical settings.
  • You have to switch between multiple applications. You need to update Windows/AC drivers/MyAsus separately.
• [major] The Windows onscreen keyboard interferes with the Steam onscreen keyboard.
  • This happens most of the time.
  • I can't configure the Windows keyboard
  • We have AI baked into Windows and it can't even detect if there is an existing onscreen keyboard.
• [minor] There is no cohesive design among the different components of the system.
  • I remember hearing about Microsoft's Fluent design framework several years back but it seems like app developers have not adhered to it.
  • It's quite jarring to switch from the Windows interface to AC, MyAsus center, AMD Software Center
  • Other than AC, none of the core system components support controllers.
• [minor] Because of how application windows and AC appear on top of each other, the game window or AC sometimes lose focus and it feels like the interface has frozen.
  • When this keeps on occurring multiple times it becomes quite annoying.
  • You need to manually tap on the window to get the focus back on the window you want.
• [minor] People recommend using Playnite to manage games from different launchers.
  • The idea seems good in theory, until you find out it requires you to install all the launchers anyway.
  • The only serious advantage is that you can launch the game using a controller.
• [very minor] You can't turn off the RGB permanently which is persistent across a reboot.
  • Note: It's possible that I'm dumb and did not fiddle with the settings enough.
  • I fixed it (hacky fix) by setting the RGB color to black.

Overall, the ROG Ally with Windows is not a pickup-and-play device. I felt like I just bought a Windows PC with a touch-screen instead of a handheld. Let me iterate; I'm not 'anti-touch screen' but it should not be a core requirement of the UX. Using the touch-screen once a while is fine. If you are forcing the user to use the touchscreen for non-gaming/non-essential reasons, you have failed. Some of the annoyances vanish if I'm using a keyboard/mouse, but then it just becomes a PC (PSA: This is supposed to be a handheld, not a PC. If I wanted a portable gaming PC, I would have got a laptop).

If you notice carefully, I didn't even talk about Windows telemetry, Copilot, Recall, mandatory Microsoft account, ads baked into Windows, nagging by Edge, and other issues because an average gamer doesn't care about it. I just wanted to focus upon how Windows performs as an OS for handheld gaming.

Moving over to Bazzite

I used Windows for a week but I grew tired of it. I don't want to sound dramatic but gaming sessions had me go like "here we go tinkering again". I do testing and tinkering at work already, I don't want to do it at home again. So I decided to just format everything and install Bazzite on it. I saw that Bazzite has a growing community and Valve has no update on when they will release SteamOS for the ROG Ally. Bazzite it not perfect, but it does a way better job compared to Windows.

Annoyances with Bazzite

• [major] Some SteamOS features not yet available OOTB (Finer TDP/fan controls)
• [major] Big picture mode does not support remote viewing/streaming (It was crashing for me)
• [minor] Loss of focus between webpage and the game, but this happens very rarely.
• [minor] Bazzite offers Xbox, Steam and PS5 controller. However, it's not clear (in Handheld daemon) which controller should one use for the best experience. I understood that PS5 needs to be used in order to use gyro.
• [minor] No support for AMD's fluid motion frames.
• [minor] No support for the fingerprint sensor
• [minor] The installation process requires a physical keyboard to be connected to the Ally if secure boot is enabled. Either it was not mentioned in the installation guide or I'm too dumb to understand instructions.
• [very minor] The installation wizard requires interaction with a touch screen and the buttons are very tiny.
• [very minor] Slight interface lag when using the quick access shortcuts (75 ms instead of 25 ms)
• [very minor] Bootup process is slightly slower compared to SteamOS
• [very minor] Buying games through Heroic still needs touchscreen (Launching does not require the touchscreen)
• [very minor] There is no mention of how to view the Bazzite shortcuts (It can be viewed but requires minor tinkering).
• [very minor] Bazzite does not support the screenshot shortcut OOTB. I had to adjust some settings to get it working (No, I did not use the terminal). The only time I had to use the terminal was for installing SimpleDeckyTDP which was just a single command.

However, most of the cons mentioned above are explicitly stated by the Bazzite team in the FAQ. It's because of a device limitation or a functionality tied to the firmware which is not yet available on Linux, so I can't really blame them. On the other hand, all the major annoyances that I had with Windows are fixed in Bazzite.

Major positives of Bazzite

• Right after the installation, it offers a simple welcome screen which recommends some helpful applications.
• Bazzite recommends using the Heroic launcher. I'm using Epic/GOG/Amazon games through Heroic and never once did I see any of those launchers during gameplay. This is a core requirement for a handheld device. I don't want to tap at unnecessary screens to start the game.
• Decky Loader plugin manager => manage your system and increase the functionality of your system using the controller. I believe Decky Loader is missing on Windows
• Proton => All the tinkering required to get a game working is done in the background by Valve. The user doesn't have to tinker. I am a bit shocked that I have to tinker less in Linux compared to Windows to get games working. Old-school Linux users know this was not the case a decade back.

By the way, Bazzite has a fully fledged desktop interface but it needs to be switched on manually. This separation is essential in making the user feel like they are now exiting gaming mode. On Windows, you are always in desktop-mode. I have to admit, I was spoiled by SteamOS because of which the above mentioned points affect me so much compared to an average Windows gamer. Also, the SteamOS experience is even more polished than Bazzite.

Conclusion

Listen, I am not trying to say "Window bad". I want the Windows folks to know what they are missing from a gaming UX perspective. You should really put the pressure on Microsoft to fix these issues. Windows users should try the SteamOS/Bazzite interface (Not Steam Big Picture mode. It's not the same) once to understand what a modern day gaming interface should look and feel like.

Image source: TechDweeb

Edit: Improved formatting.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/18077287

> Artist Links > - Linktree

Invidious, an alternative YouTube client in the browser without using YouTube directly (more private): https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=h9Z4oGN89MU

I recommend watching or listen this video at x1.4 playback speed. If you can't set the speed to this value, then at least watch at x1.25.

Description:

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Graphics Cards can run some of the most incredible video games, but how many calculations do they perform every single second? Well, some of the most advanced graphics perform 36 Trillion calculations or more every single second. But how can a single device manage these tens of trillions of calculations? In this video, we explore the architecture inside the 3090 graphics card and the GA102 GPU chip architecture.

Note: We chose to feature the 30 series of GPUs because, to create accurate 3D models, we had to tear down a 3090 GPU rather destructively. We typically select a slightly older model because we're able to find broken components on eBay. If you're wondering, the 4090 can perform 82.58 trillion calculations a second, and then we're sure the 5090 will be even more.

Table of Contents:

00:00 - How many calculations do Graphics Cards Perform? 02:15 - The Difference between GPUs and CPUs? 04:56 - GPU GA102 Architecture 06:59 - GPU GA102 Manufacturing 08:48 - CUDA Core Design 11:09 - Graphics Cards Components 12:04 - Graphics Memory GDDR6X GDDR7 15:11 - All about Micron 16:51 - Single Instruction Multiple Data Architecture 17:49 - Why GPUs run Video Game Graphics, Object Transformations 20:53 - Thread Architecture 23:31 - Help Branch Education Out! 24:29 - Bitcoin Mining 26:50 - Tensor Cores 27:58 - Outro

Game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/346010/Besiege/

An amazing update for a game from 2020 (which was years in Early Access before). It's sort of puzzle game with building mechanics and a physics engine. Now they add a level editor for free! Plus ton of new content and bug fixes off course.

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Hello Everyone!

Today we’ve released another major update, focussed around Besiege’s level editor, coupled with some quality of life features/changes. The update adds 120+ new objects (including complex objects for the first time, like the Galleon ship), a new camera mode for better machine tracking in tight spaces, improvements to multiplayer and other improvements & fixes!

Level Editor

The core focus of this update was adding additional objects to the level editor and bringing some of the more complex, heavily requested items to it as well! During this process we felt the object categories could benefit from some reorganisation and we also spent time improving thumbnails to make objects easier to find & understand.

... (lot of stuff) ...

Additional Features

To start with, we’ve got a new option for Besiege’s camera that prevents it from passing through large objects and terrain. This means you can now more easily control your machine near large terrain features, in tight spaces, or even in structures created in the level editor.

... (lot of stuff) ...

1.6 changelog

Level Editor & Multiplayer related

• 125 New Level Editor objects*
• changing the size of multiplayer world from 2,000 x 1,750 x 2,000 to 4,000 x 1,500 x 4,000 -- (the slight lowering of the height by 250m was necessary on a technical level to ensure a smooth experience after expanding the floor area by 4 times as much)
• added water altitude setting to level settings
• added water type selection to level settings
• fixed objects that were unable to break (or didn't display correctly for clients) and/or move in Level Editor, even though they had settings for it -- Desert House, Cart, Lyre, Coliseum Column, Arena Column, Gate, Arch, Scaffold, Scaffold Tall, Fence Low, Basket, and more
• fixed fire on several objects, including wooden ramp objects and certain foliage in level editor
• fixed newly placed colliseum pieces in level editor to aligning and not be squished
• fixed density and mass sliders in Level Editor for some objects not assigning values
• fixed some objects that would not sync correctly for clients becuase they were marked as never moving network side
• polished all thumbnails in the level editor fixed NPC cannons aiming being framerate and timescale dependent
• fixed NPCs sometimes spawning weird blood coulds only intended for water maps
• fixed order of operations of bombs exploding and calling Level Editor events, so that if they respawn themselves on explode they do not stack overflow.
• Level Editor NPCs can now join to specific objects, i.e. vehicles
• fixed an issue with respawning machine in Multiplayer where the machines would get stuck mid air
• fixed being able to scale unscalable objects during placement in level editor
• changed the layout of the level editor categories
• fixed when placing certain objects in Level Editor pressing T or holding T didn't scale the object visibly
• fixed an issue in the level editor where after a transform event we always reassign their physics to default moving, even if they shouldn't have been
• now displaying in level editor which objects are DLC specific
• fixing multiplayer spectator not working after TSS was introduced
• level editor walls' destroy threshold now also modify how easily the break off of adjecent pieces
• updated level editor scale tool so that when you scale an object multiple times in a row, the numbers actually try and stay on the grid you defined (instead of going from 1.0 -> 0.9 -> 0.72 -> 0.682, it'd go 1.0 -> 0.9 -> 0.8 -> 0.7)
• added ambience to sandboxes and level editor environments
• fixed NAT punchthrough fascilitator server trying to connect over and over in a steam environment, as well as outside if it fails it keeps trying forever even if it can never reach the server. This caused lagspikes every 10 seconds when it failed.
• Limiting Level Editor selection tool selection range from infinity to 1000 to get a better selection of objects, also improving the performance and delay to select or open mapper for said objects.
• spread out and improved the multiplayer machine loading to avoid as high potential for bad frames, note if you have great framerate and want faster spawning set fps cap to unlimited
• added selection inverting to level editor
• fixed using center for selections in level editor aligning with the center of a single object as well
• fixed intro animation in multiplayer, and attached event on end of animation now plays properly
• fixed camera focusing on level editor objects staying locked on when switching from simulation to build mode and vice versa.
• fixed updating center and orientation of level editor tools when switching between the tools
• fixed keeping level editor on screen on resolution changes
• fixed not being able to load levels into multiverse that are inside entire uploaded folders of levels (although it's still jank likely)
• fixed fog in multiplayer not applying correctly to certain objects in barren environment, e.g. explosions and foliage
• fixed virtual objects in level editor having selection outlines

Block fixes

• fixed water cannons throwing errors on client side
• fixed water cannons creating particles on water correctly
• fixed a problem with water cannons not displaying steam or water particles as accurately to what the server sees
• improved water cannon performance when they spawn into simulation
• fixed a centering issue on the source cube
• fixed a problem with the Machine Mesh Exporter where certain blocks would stop it from exporting correctly
• fixed error happening from spamming respawning that would result in multiple simulation machines for 1 player and ofc breaking the simulation
• fixed TSS blocks showing up in searches for people who don't have the expansion installed or active
• fixing sensor blocks seeing insignias in level editor
• a very slight optimisation for build surface meshes
• tried to fix cannons with NaN power crashing the game
• fixed some rope alignment issues on the harpoon launcher and its harpoon
• fixed some centering issues on newly placed bombs and grenades
• fixed errors thrown if a rocket with NaN explosion force explodes upon certain blocks and objects
• fixed wheels and steering hinges continuing to play audio sometimes after they break
• fixed a bug with aquatic screw as clients where it would throw errors
• fixed an issue where having loads of machine inputs would generate garbage and use more RAM than necessary
• fixed a symmetry tool issue where if you move the block on which the pivot is on while symmetry options are enabled it causes errors, lags and potentially freezes

Splintered Sea

• added a new island to the seafarers' haven sandbox
• tried to improve graphics performance on seafarers' haven by limiting geometry on screen
• fixed an issue where ballasts exiting water would have changed their drag from 0 to 0.2 as their base drag
• fixed aerodynamic water drag routine not running at all, it accidentally published in a broken state (we'll balance the amount of drag if things have become too aerodynamic)
• fixed a glitch where for 1 frame camera entering or exiting water would see incorrect visuals
• improved vram use of water shaders by compressing data slightly for calming
• in the ocean environment in level editor the spawn zones now match the size of the TSS campaign
• tried to improve water physics performance by not processing objects that are processable but not currently assigned to.
• fixed density sliders appearing only for the level editor objects they should

UI and generic

• added monitor selection to options menu (requires restart after switch)
• added saturation slider to options menu
• added UI highlight intensity slider to options menu
• if no thumbnail exists for a save/load folder it'll try and find a suitable recent thumbnail from one of the machines inside of the folder.
• added toggle option specifically for water cannon particles spawning ripples and foam on water
• added the ability to multiply values in values fields by writing * between 2 inputted numbers
• added toggle for using new camera distance limiting feature
• now able to limit camera distance to large geometry obscuring the view
• tried to improve main menu performance a little
• added more mouse button compatibility (from m1 to m6)
• updated debug console canvas to scale correctly with height

Modding:

• added efficient cubemap loading
• when loading assetbundles to stop mods reusing the same one throwing errors, we attempt to check their content hash against eachother before loading
• Added ModEntryPoint.Path so modders can find their own resource folders and such
• added a way to assign cubemaps and related colours to the water planes
• exposed cannon ammo to mods with a property

*New Level Editor Objects:

• Desert Windmill
• Hexagonal Hut
• Costal Shack
• Geteld Tent
• Large Geteld Tent
• Wooden Stilt Tower
• Wooden Stilt Platform
• Wooden Jetty
• Wood Beam Tower
• Stone Floor
• Stone Road
• Stone Wall
• Stone Wall Windowed
• Stone Wall Arch
• Stone Column
• Stone Column Arch
• Stone Column Structure
• Stone Cube
• Brick Stairs
• Brick Ramp
• Hinged Iron Gate
• Farm Fence
• Wooden Table
• Fish Rack
• Barrels
• Wooden Crate
• Wooden Chest
• Stone Boulder
• Gold Nugget
• Gold Ingot
• Jewelled Egg
• Coin Pile
• Anchor
• Tentacle Brazier
• Chained Chest
• Large Tome
• Stone Bollard
• Shipwreck
• Shipwreck Mast
• Beacon Post
• Wooden Crane
• Knight Statue
• Railway Track
• Railway Track Curve
• Wooden Path
• Stone Beacon
• Chain
• Giant Tuna Skull
• Anglerfish Skull
• Sea Beast Skull
• White Ribcage
• Giant White Vertibrae
• Dragon Wing
• Dragon Skull Bottom
• Dragon Skull Top
• Dragon Ribcage (2)
• Yak Skeleton
• Mossy Wall
• Mossy Wall Walkway
• Mossy Wall Window
• Mossy Wall Gate
• Brick Wall Door
• Underwater Wall
• Underwater Wall Window
• Un-plastered Wall (TSS DLC)
• Plastered Wall (TSS DLC)
• Plastered Wall Window (TSS DLC)
• Plastered Wall Doorway (TSS DLC)
• Cobblestone Wall
• Cobblestone Wall Supports
• Cobblestone Wall Window
• Cobblestone Wall Doorway
• Desert Wall Window (2,3)
• Desert Wall Door
• Stone Pillar
• Sandstone Pillar
• Desert Tower Top
• Beam Banner
• Hanging Banner
• Carved Stone Steps
• Brush Patch
• Berry Bush
• Coral
• Long leafed Seaweed
• Stalagmite
• Frigid Rock
• Scorchmark
• Basalt Mountains
• Shark Egg (TSS DLC)
• Tuna (TSS DLC)
• White Razortooth (TSS DLC)
• Squid (TSS DLC)
• Fisherman
• Besiege Developer
• Krolmar Javelin Thrower
• Frozen Knight
• Offlander Harpoon Thrower (TSS DLC)
• Offlander Diver (TSS DLC)
• Cannon
• Mortar Cannon
• Ship Cannon
• Bronze Cannon
• Scout Balloon
• Airship
• Cannon Airship
• Desert Airship
• Fishing Boat (TSS DLC)
• Sail Boat (TSS DLC)
• Raiding Boat (TSS DLC)
• Galleon (TSS DLC)
• Caravan
• Spinning Chain
• Quarter Pipe
• Textured Quarter Pipe
• Cylindrical Segment
• Textured Cylindrical Segment
• Sloped Quarter Turn
• Textured Sloped Quarter Turn
• Sloped Eight Turn
• Textured Sloped Eight Turn
• Large Sloped Eight Turn
• Textured Large Sloped Eight Turn
• Finish Line Insignia
• Zero Gravity Zone
• Joint

I've recently seen a lot of videos from Hearthstone creators about the game The Bazaar created by an ex-hearthstone creator. They are selling closed beta access for around $30 for the basic pack, which gives you and a friend access to the game, as well as enough premium currency to unlock the three currently available heroes.

The value proposition isn't terrible in the gaming industry right now. Open beta is supposed to start in December (and totally check the game out. It looks pretty fun!) I'm just so tired of competent QA people being replaced with pay for early access to a "free" game.

The monetization of the game is very odd, but let's discuss how the monetization of a game affects what the developers are incentivised to put effort into. A free to play game is often monetized, similar to League of Legends, mostly through cosmetic overrides for in-game models. This is why most LoL patch notes are new champions that come out with a few skins, new skins for Lux and Ezreal, I mean existing champions. The incentive for the developers is to only make new skins, and on top of that, only new skins for very popular champions.

The Bazaar has a casual mode where if you get ten wins (like Hearthstone Arena), you get a ticket to play a game of ranked mode. You also get one free ranked ticket every day that is use-it-or-lose-it. And if you get enough wins in a ranked run, you are rewarded with treasure chests, which will contain a cosmetic.

The plan is for these cosmetic items to be tradable to other players. For a free to play game, this sounds like a paradise for botting. But also having a "ranked" mode just be the normal mode, but with the possibility of rewards is very silly to me in general. But having a ranked queue that costs money seems terrible. The incentive is for the developers to funnel as many people into paying for ranked runs as possible, but the rewards will decrease in value the more people receive them.

I don't have access to the game due to not wanting to spend on beta testing the game so close to Brighter Shores coming out and Oldschool Runescape Leagues later this month. But I'm not sure I would continue to play this game, considering I don't expect the game to succeed.

What other free to play games have monetization models that incentivise the devs to create the best possible gaming experience for the users? Or is that not sustainable in our current market?

Alternative Invidious client (in browser), to watch this YouTube video without using YouTube directly: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=t9xv0g5VfwU

Video description:

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It feels like every game has currencies, battlepasses, seasons, rotating shops, or loot boxes. All of them manipulating you to play more, and to pay more. So how do we fix it?

I've been playing a tonnnn more UFO 50. Beat Vainger, started Mini and Max (absolutely amazing). Also did the whole meta game secret thing to the end which was super fun!

Looks like owner of Ryujinx changed and now is developed by someone else? The top contributor for this is gdkchan, the previous owner and main developer. So this is not simply a fork, but changing ownership of the original repository. Is that right? It makes sense, because what happened previously is that gdkchan got a message (or visit) from Nintendo to stop working on the emulator. That's all. There was no cease and desist to the entire project, or anything like that (unlike with Yuzu).

Edit: Another hint that this is the original repository is, that a message is displayed that I have blocked a certain user who contributed to this repository. This message does not popup on any of the forks.

Edit 2.0: I may have been wrong: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/creating-and-managing-repositories/transferring-a-repository

> If the transferred repository has any forks, then those forks will remain associated with the repository after the transfer is complete.

And looking in the list of forks, the oldest one seem to be 1 month old or so.

Consider watching this video with FreeTube, a nifty open-source program that lets you watch YouTube videos without Google spying on your viewing habits!

Combined with Libredirect, which automatically opens youtube links in Freetube, it becomes really slick and effortless to use.