Lurkily

Also, I just want to give props to Markus here for reacting to all the development-related stuff that goes up. It actually helps a lot knowing that something we brought up didn't just sail by unnoticed. As people trying to, in a limited way, participate in development, the divide between what we want and what you guys know about what we want is often pretty foggy and mysterious.

Nimbatus is great for guys with a toolshed full of half-finished projects.

Woot woot! Can it track a SPECIFIC tracker, or, like cameras, do all trackers figure into its targeting? I'm actually most concerned about trackers, the hopper, and things like geopositioning. (Rotate the directional sensor's reading to match your rotation around the planet.) Nearest enemy/enemy structure/mission target/collectible/etc would be nice, but I'm not sure it's crucial. It may be the case that it's not as much fun to provide that information; no exploration rewards. As for autonomy, I think autonomous bots should have to be capable of everything a human is -- like exploring -- so I'm not certain they should get a pass on looking around.

Right now I am rocking Beat Sabers. I just bought two broken VR headsets and managed to make one working set out of them (One had a broken lens, the other fried electronics) so I got them for a steal, and Beat Saber is ridiculously addictive. I think I found my new aerobics regimen.

I have a talent for setting aside things I can't do anything about. Unfortunately, this also sometimes manifests as ignoring a problem until it's so bad I can't ignore it, so I also have to reign in that talent sometimes. If it ever gets bad, TeenLineOnline is a group dedicated to providing a safe space for teens to talk to other teens. I don't know a lot about them or what precautions they employ, but they have an awful lot of support from mental health associations and such, and the people you call or text are in their employ, not random idiots from the internet. (Not that this means you can throw caution to the wind, of course.

I am told Redwall is a good series of novels; also a series about talking animals, glory and death and such. I have not read them, so I can't tell you whether I agree, but when I wrote Murine Honor, and expressed concerns that mice riding cats to battle was too whimsical to be so grim, Redwall is what many many people help up as a counter-example.

SQUEEEEE! I know I harp on detection criteria and sweep a lot (even way back in closed alpha) so this is definitely appreciated. Mixed criteria are also very much beloved. With sensors getting so much love, any chance of a few criteria going into Directional Sensors, too? Maybe trackers?

Though the player's goal should be to build versatile and powerful, development's goal should be to make it fun. It might be worth considering double elimination, round robin, multilevel, or some other variant bracket. If for no other reason, then for players to have a number of matchups to enjoy and to evaluate their build before it all ends.

I think the best advice I can give, is to seek help. You don't have to face things alone. You might be surprised to learn how many people are willing to help you. Unfortunately, we aren't very equipped to help you deal with your troubles over the internet, without knowing the details. If it's not personal, can you tell us more so we can offer suggestions? You can also PM me if you'd rather not broadcast your problems. Even if the trouble is personal trouble, I'm willing to listen, and I'll offer advice if I can. If nothing else, I'll certainly listen.

I don't expect tremendous overhauls here; (except for the things you're currently focused on, of course, racing is big,) I'm more just curious as to where the team's thinking is on some things. I'm glad that making Sumo require more thought is a big concern. An obstacle in the center may inhibit more than chargers, though; spinners and any other center-seeker will have to be concerned about that. You would have to find a way to ensure that smushing your core against the center obstruction until the constricting circle kills your opponent doesn't become a dominant strategy. I have a feeling that introducing obstacles won't provide so much of a challenge; I think instead people will use it as a tool to make it impossible to dislodge their drone. Perhaps if the obstructions were semi-random and/or in motion, it might be a fairer test, as you wouldn't be able to plan for the arrangements that you knew were coming. It might also help if they were repulsors as well as just obstacles; like trying to force like poles of a magnet together, trying to brace a drone with the obstacles would be a slippery task.

I like the VTOL thrusters - do they only follow the mouse? If they are actuated like hinges, then we'll definitely need a new control paradigm to control them effectively - which, on the upside, would also likely be applicable to hinges. Would it be possible to link them to a directional sensor, so that they're aways facing to/away from gravity? My vectored thrust assemblies always require a directional sensor on the hinge, which has always made them either unstable, or unresponsive; that much weight on a hinge is hard to manage, especially with the clearance (thus distance from the parent part) the sensor needs, so that the hinge can turn freely. Those afterburners are going to be much-abused in Sumo, I think; it's another step towards buffing up brute-force solutions. I realize you're focused on race mode and drone parts to support that, but I'm curious where thinking currently stands on gentling the punishment for having more logic in a sumo/race drone. Has any thought been given to reducing the penalty for using logic in Sumo, such as reduced part count (logic costs 0.25 parts?) or the 'processor' ideas that let you back three logic parts in a 1x3 processor? (I like those numbers, because it doesn't eliminate the chance that drones will wig out with logic damage, but still reduces part count and the space that logic occupies.) I really would like to see smart builds be rewarded more in sumo, race, and other asynchronous/autonomous game modes.

Let us not forget the demon baby glitch from the Sims.

I'm like, 99.627% sure this was unintended.

Oh, god, the theme song is playing in my head. "Turn on the magic of colored lights!"

Welcome on board. We're always glad to welcome new voices; be sure to ask a moderator if there's anything we can help with.

Welcome to the community! We're always glad to welcome new voices on board, so don't hesitate to make yourself heard. If you have any questions, you can ask any moderator, and we'll do our best to help you out.

I have wanted this for forever and a half. This is awesome. Thank you sir, and thank you again.

Thanks, but I can't take all the credit. I participate in a few writing forums and groups. I see advice or requests for advice along, so some of this is mine, some comes from other members of other communities, some come from the greats of literature that I've found published advice from.

Welcome on board! We're always happy to welcome a new voice to the community.

Congratulations! Vanna, tell'im what he's won!

Huh, I haven't seen this thread before. we used to use no-kill traps for mice at home, and release them on an island park near where we live. We also once rescued some baby flying squirrels in our attic. We patched a hole in our roof, and apparently we sealed momma out. We had to nurse some baby squirrels before we could release them.

Yeah. Not everything we find is normal, or makes sense, or can be discussed in polite company. (For stories that aren't family-friendly, you'll have to PM me.) Unless you were talking about the other part, in which case, yeah, that part of the job wasn't something everybody could deal with emotionally.

It looks like it's a nonviolent, exploration- and story-focused game, with gameplay based on the freedom of mobility granted by some mystical grappley thingy. It's also got positive reviews, and is free until January 14th, 10 AM Pacific time. I know it's nothing to do with here, but we're all gamers, and it's a free game, so I wanted to let everybody know before it slips away. https://store.steampowered.com/app/278360/A_Story_About_My_Uncle/

You'd have to define what you mean by dead -- but I'll assume you mean remains. Sometimes hunters bring back trophies; once I found bits of antler and claw that I couldn't really understand visually, still a bit . . . messy. There were some anthropologists who brought back some human skulls - X-Ray operators got a shock seeing that on the X-ray - but that was down at checkpoint in carry-on, not checked luggage, where I worked. Beyond that . . . in my department, crematory urns were not terribly uncommon. We might see something every couple of months, and they were rarely marked. Those who worked out at the cargo hangar had it rougher; when bodies are shipped home, they go by cargo. Not everybody can work down there. Seeing a casket in shipping isn't so bad, really; until it's a really small casket. Then some people just can't work there anymore. Living things typically don't go in checked luggage, because it's not a pressurized hold, (Animals in carriers get tucked away someplace special,) but I have opened boxes to find bugs. I once opened a cardboard box, and a whole bunch of spiders scrambled out, dozens of them. Another had roaches crawling inside.