Cataphract

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19279015

I wanted to share and highlight this video for others to see. This is such a thorough and amazing resource for the dev team at Frost Giant (the makers of Stormgate) that I hope they have seen. The breakdown and walk-through of the different elements of the game was such an amazing thing to watch.

I found myself sitting there watching for hours, this is exactly what game companies need in terms of experienced game tester leads that can articulate and explain everything going on in the game from the perspective of an average player. I think if every game company had someone of this caliber, to sit down with them and go over the basic mechanics of the games, we would all be a lot better off. I felt like I was sitting in on a company meeting while an outside contractor was going over his notes with the developers and trying to understand their vision while giving his unique and experienced position.

I'm definitely more excited about the game than I was previously after watching this video (as confusing as that might seem). It shows a clear path of how to fix and enhance the gameplay which has a chance to come into fruition with the game still in the testing phase.

I wanted to share and highlight this video for others to see. This is such a thorough and amazing resource for the dev team at Frost Giant (the makers of Stormgate) that I hope they have seen. The breakdown and walk-through of the different elements of the game was such an amazing thing to watch.

I found myself sitting there watching for hours, this is exactly what game companies need in terms of experienced game tester leads that can articulate and explain everything going on in the game from the perspective of an average player. I think if every game company had someone of this caliber, to sit down with them and go over the basic mechanics of the games, we would all be a lot better off. I felt like I was sitting in on a company meeting while an outside contractor was going over his notes with the developers and trying to understand their vision while giving his unique and experienced position.

I'm definitely more excited about the game than I was previously after watching this video (as confusing as that might seem). It shows a clear path of how to fix and enhance the gameplay which has a chance to come into fruition with the game still in the testing phase.

I ran into an old movie I had on VHS as a kid titled "MegaForce" (1982) (RT link). I hadn't seen the movie in decades and was worried looking at a rotten tomato score of 6% that if I watched it, I would be completely disappointed in the movie as an adult. Surprisingly, I didn't realize as a kid that it was actually more of a spoof comedy action movie like a knock-off "Hot Shots" or "Naked Gun" and just completely enjoyed watching it again because it felt like a whole new experience (definitely better than the new G.I. Joe's lol).

So what's your movie from your past that you'll always enjoy no matter how cheesy or horrible it may seem?

I've been seeing more often (and others have posted the same) that some of the elements of "Reddit etiquette" seem to be taking over here. Luckily I can still find discussion comments but it seems the jokes and general "downvote because I disagree" are slowly taking over.

So the question becomes is it the size or the functionality of the site? The people or popularity? What's your thoughts?

edit: should I change it to Lemmy-hivemind? Exhibit A: the amount of downvotes without a single explanation (guessing it's anything to do with Reddit being talked about).

Rather peeved about all of this. Been waiting for this game for ages and was excited about the F2P aspect then found out a lot of elements of the game are locked behind paywalls making the full game costing way over most AAA games. Ok, lets roll on anyways and see what the game has to offer. Then I get to the privacy policy and realize they're using anti-cheat services to monitor your game, I continued reading the user agreement and then had to find their actual privacy policy page because they have it listed under a different url then what they have posted. Some Highlights from the user agreement:

You may not host, provide or develop matchmaking services for the Product, or intercept, emulate or redirect the communication protocols used by Frost Giant in any way, for any purpose, including without limitation unauthorized play over the internet, network play (except as expressly authorized by Frost Giant), or as part of content aggregation networks.

You may not organize, promote or participate in an esports competition for the Product which has not been licensed by Frost Giant.

You may not play on another user's Account

In order to safeguard its licensing rights, when you are using the Product, Frost Giant may monitor your hardware random access memory (RAM)

You understand that the mere presence of unauthorized cheat software on your device, whether or not you use that unauthorized software while playing the Game, may result in Frost Giant exercising its full rights under this Agreement.

Acknowledgments. You acknowledge that:

• The Game which is the object of the Alpha or Beta Test is a work in progress and may contain bugs which may cause loss of data and/or damage to your computer system;
• You have, or will, back-up your hard drive prior to installation of the Beta;
• You have the resources necessary to easily reinstall the operating system for the computer system that you will use to take part in the Alpha or Beta Test as well as to restore any and all data that may be lost;

It just goes on and on with some really sketchy stuff, then I get to the privacy policy:

Your contact information/identifiers, such as your name, your gamer id, mailing address, email address, employer, primary language, country, social media credentials. preferred games and date of birth. If you contact us by telephone, we will also retain your telephone number.

Your geolocation data, if your device settings allow us to collect such information.

Your account preference information, such as your contact, communication and marketing preferences.

Your device and browsing information, including non-personally identifiable information about your phone, tablet, computer or device and online browsing activity, which may be automatically collected. This may include IP addresses, unique identifiers, cookie identifiers, browser language, device and browser settings and broad location-based information, and internet service provider information. It may also include information about when and how you accessed and used our Sites, how you navigated to our Sites (such as the date and time of your visit), the links you clicked, the websites you visited before and after our Sites, and what you searched for while on our Sites.

Analytics & Interest-Based Ads. We partner with third parties (like sponsors, content providers, and analytics companies) to help us improve our Services and better understand how you interact with them, as well as to support our marketing initiatives and ad campaigns. These companies may collect info from you automatically in connection with your visit.

And the really scary part

In particular, we have collected the following categories of personal information from consumers within the last twelve (12) months:

• A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver's license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.
• A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information.
• Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.
• Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer's interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.
• Physical location or movements.

Third party service providers. - From time to time, Frost Giant may need to transmit your personal data to vendors or service providers that enable us to market, sell, or deliver our services. These service providers may require certain personal information in order to perform specific services on our behalf, such as cloud service and data storage, beta testing, tech support to enhance game operations, chat, customer support, social login, fulfillment and shipping, email and newsletter delivery, conducting surveys, payment processing, tournament operation, anti-cheat and fraud prevention, web hosting or web analytics. Such partners include:

Steam
Epic Online Services
RallyCry
Hathora
Brevo
Eventbrite
AWS
Sentry.io 
Google
Easy Anti-Cheat 
GGWP
Untapped
Kakao Games
ModSquad

I've stopped playing previous games that use these tactics and programs because there's just too many other games that don't require these that are available. This was a game I was hoping to get back into with some RTS friends I've made along the way, Is this just the way of the world or something to avoid?

Sorry for the vague question but I'm hoping there's a lot I"m missing. I know I can edit the side bar, icon, and banner. Make the community public or private and there's a "mod posting only" option. But is that it?

Some things I'm wondering about,

• can I turn downvotes off or is that an instance only thing? (fan community, off topic would just be removed)
• Is there any other way to manipulate the community page like backgrounds etc?
• Flair's or post tags? Any community settings I looked over?
• Allowing or disallowing bots (again is this an instance thing?)

I'm fine with what it is, just wanted to make sure there wasn't more I was missing with my options in the community.

Bonus question, besides crossposting and the "new communities" community sections, is there anything else I should do with a fresh community?

Currently remodeling a domicile, with the sweet and expensive ability to add anything I want within reason. I plan on modernizing the place to bring it into the 21st century because this house deserves it (just a great structure with lots of history and nearing it's centennial birthday).

Luckily, everything is built perfectly for access so nothing is off the table. I came onto this property with my own server "rack" and a mini diy setup for network debauchery, but plan on expanding that and installing a mini-server "room" (a fancy closet I might install in a "dead space" that I can pipe duct work in and out of).

I will be running all new electrical, A/C, Telecom lines, the whole works. I'm currently in the process of ripping out all the old coaxial, phone, piping, anything not ran properly or of a modern importance (probably reinstall phone and doorbell circuits but they're currently strewn everywhere from previous installers). I'm also creating up to date blueprints for the structure and including mechanical systems/engineering schematics for anything I'm doing or plan to do. All of this will be saved to a USB for the next owner and printed out for a laminated notebook to stay with the house (maybe a copy for myself for the nostalgia one day).

The only 2 things I KNOW I want to do is installing

• a monitor with a pi that will run a weather and local data program that I've been working on into the kitchen area

• a multi-camera cctv system (local and offsite backup) with a monitor in a neutral-shared living area.

I will probably leave those parts of the system installed here unless it's requested to be removed. I actually would love to leave everything here as a full system package for someone to "inherit" with the house but I'm not sure if that's a benefit or a hindrance someone wants to receive.

There's 3 different plans in the works (3/5/10 year plans, we are here for family but that will eventually not be required and we desperately want out of this area), depending on the time frame I might need to put in

• monitoring stations for renewable energy systems (solar/wind),

• a personalized-home weather monitoring system (barometric,temp,humidity) with a display and functionality to control the mechanical systems (A/C adjustment, daylight sensors for shades/lighting, etc),

and a bunch of other off the wall ideas I've been wanting to tinker with. Unfortunately most videos out there of "home setups" include someone with 10x my price bracket and their system is designed for themselves and their specific equipment in mind. I'm wanting to install something more generic that anyone would have use for (like weather and security). There are really only 2 "office areas" that I think would require a hardline besides any monitors I have to install for systems (I don't mind running wiring, but I don't think every room needs an ethernet port to be functional, or am I wrong thinking this way?). I will probably need to install repeaters in two locations though to cover the entire property in wifi because old houses gobble signals up but inside everything "just" reaches.

Everything I've done with my network so far I've gotten around needing a switch (it would've saved me a lot of hassle in the past but I usually find a way to get everything connected or just disconnect unused equipment that's ran it's course), but at this point I can't expand any further without a headache. So now I'm looking at new tech and equipment I don't have hands-on experience with and don't know it's proper use/limitations which I don't like when making action plans. I figured just trying to get a general sense of what people want or see would be a better angle to come at since I don't do this professionally and don't have the insider knowledge of the taboos of home networking infrastructure.

TLDR: What kind of wiring, connection setups are important to you and won't be obsolete after a few years? What do you consider a "modern" house to have or are decent "quality of life" improvements like lighting control, sensors, etc? What's your best case scenario of equipment when walking into a house and seeing a pre-installed setup?

edit: I'm not sure why but for some reason I'm not seeing everyone's comments (assuming de-federated instances from .ml but seeing it since I posted on .world), if I don't respond I apologize and will probably look for a new instance if this is the case.