not in the hands or belts of police officers

I’d like to just point out that this alone is a huge difference. Police in Europe generally do not carry firearms. It’s even unusual to see them with weapons at an airport.

I could be subject to police brutality from a random traffic stop technically, but I wouldn’t have any chance of a gun being pulled on me.

Since it’s ELI5 I’ll keep it very simple. It’s not like I know the exact mechanics anyway. No guarantee of pedantic correctness. I’m sure if I get anything overly wrong then someone who wouldn’t comment otherwise will correct me (please and thank you).

Let’s start from interpolation. It’s a simple maths idea: inter for between, poles for points. Let’s say you have two points. You could draw a line between them, take the middle point of that line. You’ve now introduced a new point.

This concept is used a lot in physics or maths in general. Let’s say you are writing down the speed of a car over time. You have 1 speed value per second. But you’re interested in the speed at 23.33 seconds for some reason.

Now you have a few options:

• You could take the speeds at 23 and 24 seconds and just the same as before: draw an imaginary straight line between them, and read what speed that is at for 23.33.
• You could also look at how the speed changed from 22 to 23 instead, especially if you didn’t have the 24s time written down.
• You could look at more of the speed values and try to figure out how the car’s speed changes over time, since it’s unlikely to be linear. That gets you to more complex forms of interpolation. That’s what’s used to find a more descriptive equation of motion for objects.

That may have been a bit of a tangent, but it does get us back to frame generation. We are interpolating where each pixel is between frames. Or perhaps even saying: okay, this visual object moved from X to Y, what happened between them?

The key part is: graphics already have this information. It would be wasteful to re-render an entire scene every frame, so you just look at what needs updating and how. But that means you know what happens one frame to the next. So now you just take that information and do some simple maths to figure out the in-between step, and show that to the user as well.

Performance-wise it’s not costly. The tough calculation is the update from frame to frame. It does take a bit of time though, introducing some tiny lag in your display.

Of course the actual frame gen algorithms can take a lot more data into account, but the simple idea is: between Point X and point Y there exists a point A which we can calculate relatively cheaply and display first.

I find it funny that we see:

Two supernaturally resilient and strong murderous humans (Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees)

Two non/metaphysical entities (Freddy Krueger and Pennywise)

… and Ghostface who is a normal human, regardless of which version.

Been a while since I played, but I didn’t even reach 1k hours and was trading stuff much earlier than that. In 850h I think I bought plat once, and made it to 21 (iirc) mastery total, with a dozen or two frames and weapons in store. The only thing I spent plat on is either intermediate currency for trading, or more slots (which you still get plenty of for free from events and such).

The game involves a lot of grinding to begin with, but you can easily farm a bit to find something to sell for plat.

Also Reddit misled you a bit. The game throws 50 and 75% off plat fairly regularly at you.

Especially about the competitive thing though: I’ve never had that thought. I’ve never seen it as competitive to begin with, even in a friendly way. And afaict, there’s nothing you could do with money that would give you too much of an advantage. Maybe skip a bit of the grind, but a lot comes from mastery levels, build synergies, and knowing how to play your frame right… And even then outside of Steel Path and other endgame-ish content you can easily nuke an entire level with minimal effort.

All that said: yeah, it’s a free to play game and it has a few features that will make you want to spend money. You can absolutely not spend a single cent and achieve whatever you want though, which is why people praise it. It just means playing the game more, so the question really becomes whether you enjoy the gameplay loop to begin with and how much time you’re willing to spend.

Not OP, but I’ll answer from my own perspective. Note that Discord terminology can be a bit weird, since a server is just a unique shared group space, but hopefully makes sense.

So you can:

• Have private chats with one or multiple individuals.
• Start audio or video calls through those chats, and screen share/stream in them.
• I’ll also mention the ability to send not just text, but images, videos, embedded GIFs, files, so on.
• in servers you get the same thing, broken into text and voice channels (the latter allowing the full range of audio, video, and screen share).
• in servers each user can be given roles to determine which channels they can see and use, or edit, among various other permissions.
• Pinned messages, @ mentions for roles.
• Though I don’t use it much anymore, the option to effectively subscribe to a channel on another server to have messages from there propagate over (e.g.: a uni club server announces an event and you see it on another server in an events channel)
• also servers don’t have any upper limits on members, at least not one I’ve ever seen hit
• Bot integration via API.
• oh, also it all works on desktop or mobile (because it’s mostly just a web app, but still)

And key thing is: all very easy to get started with, whether you’re just wanting to join a server, or start an entire community.

Big deal for my uses currently is voice chat and screen share in one place, while still being able to organise stuff into separate channels, pin messages in them, etc.

I think right now if I had to replace it, assuming I could get the people I interact with off (which is either 20 or 1500 people, depending on how much I’d want to carry with me), it’d have to be a mix of Matrix/Stoat and probably Steam’s built-in features. Maybe a classic forum. That is, if I wanted to have all the features I use. I could do with less, but it’s frustrating.

I think the alternatives will get there eventually, self-hosted even, but self-hosting also has a hardware cost.

That said, I really don’t know why software stuff was ever moved on discord. My uses are gaming and university community-related.

Unfortunately it seems very much a mixed bag. For some the more recent patches did a lot, for others they broke things.

(Sadly on Windows) The same happened to me. Decent performance around release, later updates messed it all up. That said I think the latest update did make it run better than ever on my machine, but obviously YMMV.

I do think they’re working on it, they just seem to be lost? It should be a big deal for Capcom if Monster Hunter loses popularity due to performance.

Doesn’t quite check those boxes, but it definitely sounds like a game that was based on Defend Your Castle, from back in the days of Flash games.

It’s only fair the logs (or Ewoks) also get the Warhammer treatment.

Some potential options:

• strap some propulsion on the ends of the logs
  • upgrade to warp drives to use them against space vessels
• the logs are tougher than any metal and heavier to boot
• warp fuckery means the logs ignore armour or directly affect the people inside in some way (feel free to add chaos god shenanigans)
• Ewoks believe the logs will work and they have the numbers to affect reality
• the logs just hold the walker for the split second it takes to get swarmed by Ewoks or otherwise dealt with
• the logs explode
• Ewoks are all force users now

Though let’s be honest: even with all that, the Ewoks probably would’ve been one of the countless species wiped out during the Great Crusade. 40k does have some argument for having only the most over the top shit existing.

I feel like this should be an official EU petition like Stop Killing Games as well. Have lawmakers actually tell payment processors that they have no right to deny legal transactions (not just fictional content, but any legal transaction).

This seems like it fits more of a management/strategy type vibe to me.

Maybe you hear news of the 10 greatest knights of the realm coming to save you. But you don’t know what they’re great at and you only have a limited amount of instructions to give them.

You could have the first knight leave hints by telling him to leave marks in specific places. But he might be the best at combat and would be best sent against some of the other monsters guarding the path. You just don’t have the information.

But honestly, I’m not sure if that makes a player feel trapped. They have power to change things. Maybe you steadily take away that power? I’m just not sure how.

Very interesting question though.

Oh, the journalists wrote and article that you clicked on and shared, and maybe even commented on on their website? And it points out a particularly problematic part of an otherwise pretty good game?

Fantastic, they did their job well.

I enjoyed playing the game but that achievement and “jennerising” really did leave a sour taste in my mouth (the latter is a drug effect that temporarily changes your body type). Though I found “tropic thunder” giving you dark skin somewhat amusing. Humour is subjective, and I could honestly accept all of these being just a tad too far to be funny anymore, in which case I’d rather the game was more friendly to everyone (and it’s better for its success too).

To have some fun though at your expense; the funnily appropriate way you mistyped a sentence:

try to cancel a game just because an achievement

I assume you missed the word “of” but it lets me ask: just because an achievement is what? Come on, say it.

All that aside:

I’m surprised someone on the fediverse is using “social activist” as a pejorative though tbh. Moving away from centralised social media is similarly a way to speak out against social issues you believe in.

Yeah… Would be smart. So Labour, who are trying to be the Tories but from 5-10 years ago, will not do it. Gotta court those undecided centre-right and right-wing voters: the people who still believe in Brexit, even though polls show that’s definitely not a majority.

Sigh.

The Homeworld series is great with fantastic campaigns (minus Homeworld 3 I’ve heard, not even played that).

I’ll also throw in a classic Imperium Galactica 2 because I still think for a 90s 4X RTS it has so many elements that I’ve just not seen replicated since. Though usually short and quick, it has fully simulated and controllable space and ground battles; espionage; diplomacy; you assign your unlocked tech to hard points on your ships… It’s Stellaris but better in most ways, imo.

Unlikely to be it since it’s nowhere near from the last 10 years, but CITY 2000 seems like it could be similar at least artistically?

I think the best I can recommend is looking through Steam, searching for “London” and the mystery genre. I didn’t quite catch anything there that fit at a glance, but maybe you will. Similarly could be done on GOG, since it sounds like it could potentially be an older game? Or itch, but maybe the best way to search for that would be by googling london missing friend mystery site:itch.io.

I’m assuming a modern setting, with no supernatural elements and the mystery genre, so that’s the best I could do. It’s going to be very hard to find something without some details being fixed. Point and click? Photos or isometric? Is the player character visible? Do they have any identifying details? Does the pub have a name? Anything like that could do a lot.

You say you watched someone play it on youtube then you might be able to search your youtube viewing history?

If Deep Rock Galactic counts, then Monster Hunter games should as well. The hub is usually a bar/restaurant with food, drinking, and an arm wrestling mini game. You can also randomly cook meat out in the field or go to hot springs.

Many other games do have bars, but without any real interaction. Lego games and Borderlands come to mind.

Stardew Valley has cutscenes at the bar and you can play a mini game there, but not quite as interactively as DRG.

That’s all I can think of right now. It feels like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Saints Row should also have something similar to Stardew at least, but I can’t remember how much you can do in those bars. Same with MMOs I haven’t played in a while like Runescape. I’m sure if I mention them someone else will know though.

As a bonus: with modding, Lethal Company can have a casino with a bar you can get drinks at.

Late and I cannot possibly read everything here, but I’ll come back to it as well.

And just to do some due diligence:

• Saw it multiple times already, but Homeworld.
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron or many of the other Star Wars flight games before it.
• Imperium Galactica 2. Amazing space RTS with space and ground combat.
• I think one of the Formula 1 games from the era is considered among the best, but I’m not sure which. If you like F1 and racing that’s worth checking out.
• Star Trek Armada is from 2000, but very good too.
• Sid Meier games.
• Nintendo games, including Mario Kart 64. Unfortunately the first Mario Party isn’t as good as modern ones I hear, but may also be up your alley.
• Scorched Earth or Tank Wars for DOS. Worms for a more modern take on the genre.

Very space- and RTS-themed, but that’s what got my attention at the time. And they were having their golden age. Also I was very young in the 90s, so that’s all I have.

I’m not entirely sure what scene I would’ve said had me similar when I could still more surely remember those first years. Possibly a game I’ve forgotten since. Maybe one of the Bionicle Mata Nui Games or some other big online game. Or Imperium Galactica 2.

But a moment that will always stick with me is from the first Homeworld game: when you return from your first hyperspace voyage. That entire game was epic, including the intro sequence, but it’s that sequence that I think can stand forever as a masterpiece.

I’ve also said this before and I’ll say it again: names of suspects and even convicted criminals should not be shared unless necessary*. That just makes no sense for rehabilitation as it opens people up for judgement in a court of opinion. Justice is the job of the justice systems and should not generally involve the wider public.

Could there be issues with the judgement or other events where the only way to achieve justice is via the press? Sure, probably, but I don’t think the default should be that if I google the name of someone I can find if they or someone with a similar name (and god forbid, appearance) were involved in a crime.

*: unless necessary here can cover cases like trying to find an individual on the run, or when their previous crime is meant to exclude them from specific lines of work, although even that should be on a need-to-know basis imo, not public info.

As others said, it’s not for everyone. The gameplay loop is and will remain repetitive.

For what it’s worth, I hate horror but I generally just get surprised, not scared in this game. To me it’s a game where you go in with the mindset that you’ll likely die in some horrible way, but it’ll make for a funny scene or story afterwards.

I’d actually recommend watching clips of people. Not big name YouTubers, just the random 5-60s clips people upload and figuring out if those sort of events would be things you’d laugh at or enjoy being part of yourself.