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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • i think so. it’s really a very different gameplay loop - mostly you’re laying track and maybe adjusting junctions. the level structure really eases you in, and, for better or worse, there’s no signaling but trains will ghost to avoid collisions (this slows them down, so you’re still rewarded for building good layouts where no ghosting happens)

    i think at the very least, you’ll be able to tell if it’s a good fit inside of the 2 hour refund window, or you can watch some early game stuff on youtube



  • i wish i knew. i can tell you when i was laid off (in software), i was given an nda and non-disparagement contract that my severance was contingent upon so based on that experience, these companies consider severance a “gift”

    edit: i think it also (duh) depends on the state - many states are “employment at will”, and i would guess in those states since they can dismiss you without cause (save for discrimination), you aren’t required to pay severance. most companies still do, but i imagine the requirement wouldn’t mesh with the concept of at will employment









  • are unity and unreal so different that your 10 years of experience in one isn’t helpful for the other? i’m not a game developer but I had assumed it was similar to web frameworks - definitely high switching costs for porting an existing project, but as a developer looking for a job there are still many portable skills.

    i’d guess it also depends on what parts of the engine you are working in?


  • That 90 minute to do a full ng+ run number is kinda nuts but an interesting design choice. I ended up not picking up starfield but I do hope someone takes this novel ng+ approach and expands on it to create a game more focused on that as a story telling tool.

    Heck, THIS is what studios should be using AI for - write a solid base story and let the AI build on that to create a more truly infinite and distinct set of new loop possibilities. (I would say your first 5 or so runs should be handcrafted, tell an interesting cohesive story, and then if players still want more the AI can kick in and offer additional replayability)


  • really glad we got to hear about a straight up comparison against space exploration. i’ll admit i was hoping they’d go a different direction (i’ve seen people mention going underwater which i think would have been a ton of fun and a guaranteed differentiator from anything currently available)

    all that aside, the most interesting parts for me are the engine changes:

    • improved blueprints? how? i can’t say i’ve ever had much to complain about with factorios blueprint system
    • better flying robots behavior. this one could be huge, when i built a large base it was hard to properly balance logistics robots and not feel like they were just not working as well as they should

    a year away tho! that’s okay, we’ll live, i just got sucked back into satisfactory (playing sf+ which is basically bobsangels for sf and it’s GLORIOUS).

    i know all us diehards will pick it up sight unseeen, but unless there’s something flashy, like a graphical overhaul (which i’m not sure the diehards would be in favor of), i do wonder how it will stand out and attract the newer players that have been playing the newer automation games and might only look at factorio skin-deep and not get as excited for.

    and i’m okay with all that, but i also want their work to be appreciated by as many people as possible so here’s to hoping they can nail the marketing





  • When I read the post I was initially focused on google search but man….if gmail were to die, the pile-on effects would be seriously catastrophic and it would take a very long time for things to stabilize again. It’s not just personal emails that are handled by gmail - their corporate offerings are used by a ton of companies, and there are plenty of school districts as well that rely on it for their email (and thus associated logins). If you’ve ever worked near education, you know what a cluster that would be as all the IT departments scrambled to figure out who would be responsible for a migration.

    I don’t really see it happening, but it’s very scary to think about what would happen if gmail were to fall.