I like to collect Jewish (and Jew-ish) screenshots from games. This is Ulpius. Guess where he's from?
Sometimes, Ulpius quotes the Talmud!
Because games are serious business.
I like to collect Jewish (and Jew-ish) screenshots from games. This is Ulpius. Guess where he's from?
Sometimes, Ulpius quotes the Talmud!
Factorio is a ridiculously addictive game in which, having crash-landed on an alien planet, you start mining ore and building machines until you can build a rocket and leave. Amongst the items you can build are various components of logic circuits. Long story short, you can write programs with them.
I'm trying to build a smart train system (i.e., one which uses circuit logic to determine when/where a train is needed and send it there), and that involves a timer. I wanted to make a nice display for that timer. Specifically, I want to display the digits of the minutes and seconds with lights, like on a calculator.
Step 1 is to make a clock. For my test clock, I set an Arithmetic Combinator to calculate T (for time, or tick) plus 1, and output the new value of T. The output is then fed into a Decider combinator. The Decider outputs the input value of T as long as T does not equal 300, and is linked back into the Arithmetic Combinator.
This means T will count upwards for 10 seconds of real time, and then the Decider Combinator will send '0' instead of 300 and the count will start over. To see how many actual seconds have passed, the output of the Arithmetic combinator is fed into a second Arithmetic Combinator which divides T by 30 and outputs S (for 'seconds').
The 'tick rate' of Factorio is 60 per second. In other words, if you fed that first Combinator directly into itself, T would increase by 60 per second. But, I've fed my count through two combinators. Half the ticks are going into having the Decider Combinator check if we've met the limit or not. With this system, T only actually increases by 30 per second, hence 300 recorded ticks equalling 10 seconds.
(The alternative is to put T=1 on a Constant combinator, and feed that into the Decider. Attach the output back to the Constant Combinator, creating a loop. Have the Decider output the input value of T as long as T does not equal whatever you want to count up to, and then divide the output by 60 to see the value in seconds. This kind of clock will start counting at 1 instead of 0, which is very unlikely to matter).
Once you have a clock, it's time to work on the display. With a 3x5 light display, there are three options for how to do the numbers, based on whether you put '1' on the left, in the middle, or on the right.
I started building this with '1' on the right because, tbh, it did not occur to me to do anything else. On reflection, 1 in the middle has a lot to recommend it, and might be simpler. On the other hand, I already figured out most of 1-on-the right, so I'm sticking with it.
Lights can only be enabed or disabled by a single condition. That condition can be "if anything is equal to/less than/more than" a variable or a constant, but it can't be an 'And' or an 'Or' condition. So, I need to use more combinators to turn my S signal into whatever it is I want the lights to respond to. I want to use as few combinators as possible to do this.
I did quite a bit of experimenting with modulo, but the easiest way I found - which I think Dosh Doddington also relies on in this video - is by multiplying.
You will need the following combination of combinators:
For testing, you can also use a Constant Combinator with S set to whatever digit you want to see in place of the clock. You can also attach the LEDs to the input of another Arithmetic or Decider combinator. If you hover over it, it will display the inputs the LEDs are receiving.
The basic logic was to find values that, when multiplied by S, would have the same values for all the numbers I wanted a specific light to turn off for, but with that value not appearing for any other number. I could then set the light to turn off if everything did not equal that value. In human-speak, that's equivalent to if anything = x.
I used the above settings for each light.
Always On
The Decider Combinator is what lets the always-on lights work. When S is 0, it emits the colour at input value, so there are never zero inputs. This also means the colour is continuous; if you use a different symbol, the lights will be uncoloured when S is 0. If you want to use a different colour, remember to change it in both the Constant and the Decider.
Off for 1
S*S=1 when S=1, so this light is enabled only when S does not equal 1.
Off for 2
SxS=4 when S=2, so this light is enabled only when S does not equal 4.
Off for 0, 1, 7
The colour is set to 70, so, when S=0, a value of 70 is emitted. Since we're multiplying S by everything, 70 blue is also emitted at S=1. Now we need something that equals 70 when S=7. That's the White 10 is for. At S=10, White = 70 and this light goes off.
Off for 1, 4, 7
1400 Iron Ore is emitted at 1, 4x350 Iron Plates are emitted when S=4, and 7x200 Steel are emitted when S=7. This light is only enabled as long as nothing = 1400, so it switches off at 1, 4, and 7.
I initially tried 140, but 2x70 Blue appears when S=2, so this light was turning off for 2 as well, which we don't want. I just multiplied everything by 10 to stop them overlapping.
Off for 1, 7
Copper is at 490, so S*Copper=490 when S=1. S*Blue=490 when S=7.
Off for 1, 4
S*S=16 whenS=4. Fish is set to 16, so S*Fish=16 when S=1.
Off for 5, 6
Water is set to 20, so S*Water=120 when S=60. Oil is set to 24, so S*Oil=120 when S=5.
Off for 1, 2, 3, 7
Various power poles at 12, 24, 48, and 84 = 84 when S is 1, 2, 3, or 7.
Off for 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9
I used the letter symbols for 3780, 1260, 945, 540, and 420, which create 3780 when S is 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9.
I picked 3780 because that's when you get when you multiple 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 together, and whatever number you use needs to be divisible by all of those.
Blueprint String
Attach the clock/counter to the Constant with green wire.
Once you have seconds, you can use %60 to get how many seconds through the minute you are, and then use /10 and %10 to get the tens/units of that number. If you're counting over a minute, divide your total secons by 60, and use /10 and %10 on that number to gets 10 and units. You can then line up the digits and attach them in the right order.
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
This game has four possible endings, and which one you get depends on two factors:
There are two potential outcomes to the final scene. For Riley to survive, you need to choose the following:
If you choose those options, Josh should realise what's happening and intervene. If not, he won't realise until it's too late.
To see another ending, restore your most recent back-up and play through the final scene again to obtain a different outcome.
If you want to keep one of those older saves for a while, just create a new folder and copy the .bak files into it.
You'll need at least two playthroughs, as changing the relationship between Josh and Riley will take a bit longer. I don't know exactly how long - restoring a save from the middle of the game might be sufficient.
Puzzle Pieces
Family Members
Puzzle Pieces
Puzzle Pieces
Way, way too many.
I really Vampire Survivors, probably because I have ADHD and it's a dopamine factory. It's not too bad though - I recognised its addictive properties and used Cold Turkey Blocker to prevent me from playing it for more than 90 minutes per day. Plus, there is a sense of progression and achievement. On every run, even if it's unsuccessful, you can probably unlock at least one new thing that will make later runs easier or more interesting. There's a clear end goal, which is what I want from stupidly addictive games.
I played Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice on a friend's recommendation and because it was reduced to £2.49, which is less than I would pay for a cup of coffee. I finished it in one weekend, once I'd looked up how to turn the motion blur off and stopped vomiting.
If you have the same problem, you need to go into the game files and add the following to the scalability.ini file:
[SystemSettings]
r.MotionBlurQuality=0
I feel a little bit guilty about that, because the documentary on the making of the game (included with it, watchable from the main menu) went into great detail about the effort they'd made to create an authentic experience from a specific viewpoint, and the motion blur was part of that. On the other hand, I really enjoy not vomiting.
Minami Lane is a fun little puzzle game, though I found it had minimum replay value once you'd finished the first five levels. I'd like it if they added a daily or weekly challenge feature. There is a sandbox mode with no goals, but I don't find that motivating.
I played Before I Forget, which is a fairly short (just over one hour) game about living with dementia. I enjoyed it, but (minor spoilers), I don't think it needed to have that twist at the end, about the husband. I kind of get that it highlighted how her memories had her remembering the world in a totally different state to what it currently was, but it felt a bit cheap.
I got Imposter Factory and A Bird Story, both part of the series that began with To the Moon. I didn't enjoy A Bird Story as much as the main games, but I didn't expect to. The store page warns you that it's more of an artistic experience than a game, which is why I waited until it was reduced to 84p. Imposter Factory is a bit more like the main series, though it comes at the story from a new angle. I'm about halfway through and I'm finding it's dragging a bit.
I finally finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. I first played it as an iPhone game way back around 2011 or 2012. I think it came out on the Nintendo DS first. Back then, I only played the first two chapters, because, if I recall correctly, you had to purchase each chapter seperately. It was £16.48, which wasn't a big reduction, but I really wanted to play it and I've waited long enough.
I also just - as in, a few minutes ago - finished playing No Case Should Remain Unsolved. I cried my eyes out. It is brilliant. My Steam review reads:
It is to my sincere regret that I can only play this game for the first time once.
In gameplay terms, it's a lot like the book Cain's Jawbone - you're putting together the narrative by figuring out who said what when. There are also a few other mechanics which couldn't work in a book. It's easier than Cain's Jawbone because of the interface, and because it wasn't written in the 1930s by the maniac who invented cryptic crosswords.
No Case Should Remain Unsolved wasn't on sale. It cost £5.89 for 2.7 hours of gameplay, which is £2.18 per hour. I usually aim for under 50p per hour as a rule of thumb (based on how much books cost vs how long they take to read) but this was worth it. Plus, I'll probably play it again when I've managed to forget some of the plot.
Check Your Watch
Click on the watch symbol in the lower left corner of the screen.
Try, Try Again
Start a second playthrough.
Screen Time
Linked to Tall Jared's minigame. He's in the Very Adult Bar in the Unsavoury Part of Town. Click on his video app six times.
AHH THE BEES! THE BEES ARE IN MY EYES--
This is linked to Aidan's minigame. He's in the alleyway in the Unsavoury Part of Town. To get the achievement, you'll need to have 8 hornets on screen. The easiest way to do this is as described here - lose the minigame, then stay on the screen for a few minutes and let the hornets build up until the achievement pops.
Sotenbori Memorial
Linked to The Knife's minigame. He's in the Very Adult Bar in the Unsavoury part of town. You'll need to complete Mack that Knife with perfect answers, i.e., the ones that make little hearts appear. If you want a hint, he likes flowers. If you just want the answers, they're: Botanical Garden, Flowers, Somewhere Cool, Shiny Scales, Carnival Games.
Love That Baby
Linked to Angelface's minigame. You can access her by clicking on the baby monitor in the backroom of the Antique Shop Downtown. Don't let any ghosts reach her.
Solid Snake
Having turned Aidan to stone, i.e., failed at his minigame, you can see a photo of him in this form in round 3 of Tin Lizzy's minigame. Aidan is in the Unsavoury Part of Town, Tin Lizzy is in Alligator Memorial Park. You need to turn Aidan to stone and then play Tin Lizzy's minigame in the same playthrough.
Card Shark
You'll need to play all the card related games in one playthrough. These minigames are connected to Slick Mickey (Fun District, outside the hotel), Constance (on the Trolley, by luck), Nana Rue (Antique Shop, Downtown), and Big Mama (District 9).
The Trolley Problem
To obtain this achievement, you need to find all 48 puzzle pieces. You'll then need to put them together with Clancy, on the tram.
When You're Here, You're Family
You'll need to meet every family member and beat their minigame so they appear in the final scene.
Try, Try Again
Start a second playthrough.
Save Pat
See the final ending.
This datapoint is a little bit glitchy. The map changes after your first visit.
Text Datapoint (Quests) 34 is in the office. The area it's sitting on is damaged after the mission, which makes this one glitchy.
If it's not here, reload and run back. If you're lucky, it will spawn. If not, try shutting the entire game down and restarting. It's annoying, but it should load in eventually.
There was a lot about this game that I liked. It was, overall, a cute, quirky, fun game that was quite quick to finish. But, there was also something about it that bothered me, and it took me a while to put my finger on what it was.
First, I need to describe the game. You - a player-insert character with a fully customisable name and appearance - are spending the summer in Verona, California, with your cousin. Yes, this is a Romeo + Juliet reference. You haven't had much dating experience, so this is going to be your hot girl/guy/enby summer. Also, some humans in this world can turn into weapons and you can date them.
Basically, this is a romantic visual novel/dungeon crawler. Like I said, it's quite fun to play. But...none of the datable characters really appealed to me. They were all very 'meh.' I don't care about them, I don't particularly want my character to date them, I don't think they're cute. This is entirely a matter of taste, and someone else might feel very differently.
This does, however, lead me to the other problem which is, this game doesn't really care what you, the player, thinks. Despite positing the main character as being a self-insert, the game assigns them opinions and character traits. Don't want the dagger to kiss you? Tough, she's going to, and your characters reactions will range from 'happy' to 'super happy.' Don't particularly care if the talwar breaks up with you? No, you're wrong, you're heartbroken and your only dialogue choices will reflect that. Want a platonic relationship with the estoc? You don't have to agree to sleep with him, but the game still insists on treating him as a potential romantic partner which is, quite frankly, incredibly surreal placed next to the plot regarding an unwanted admirer. Oh that guy's creepy persistence is a problem but this guy is fine?
Now, I don't have a problem with playing a character who is an actual character. Tbh, I kind of miss it. Most of the games I've been playing recently are self-inserts. But if you're going to give me an actual character to play, don't pretend they're me. Let them just be who they are. Otherwise, I'm just going to feel the incongruity of having words put in my mouth when none of the dialogue choices are things I'd actually want to say.
I got this game in the Pride Humble Bundle, along with several others, so it worked out as costing £1.67. I played it for 13.8 hours, and I can't say I wouldn't recommend it, especially at that price. What you get out of it will depend on how closely your opinions align with the developers. Someone who's taste or personality is more similar to the lead character probably won't feel the dissonance that I felt.
Any regular readers - do I have those? Or just people who google for specific guides? - will know that I bought my PC in 2013 and that's why The Sims 3 looks like that. I've now built a new one. Well, almost new.
It all started with The Forgotten City, a time-travel adventure a la Sexy Brutale, Elsinore, and Groundhog Day. Your character gets transported almost 2000 years back in time to a Roman city which lives under the threat of The Golden Rule.
The Golden Rule is thou must not cause harm to others, including stealing, injuring, or threatening to kill them. If anyone breaks the rule, everyone in the city will be turned into golden statues. This has happened at least once before, since the city is full of said statues already. Your job - should you choose to accept it rather than continue in infinite loops - is to figure out who will break the rule and stop them, so the day you keep repeating doesn't end with everyone dying.
It was a great game and I was obsessed with it for about a fortnight. After that, I was still obsessed with it, but I'd completed it several times - just to see if I could do it any faster, or with no deaths at all, or in a shorter time - and had all the achievements. It was then that I remembered that The Forgotten City began life as a Skyrim mod, an extra questline/area added by a member of the community. So, if I wanted to play the game again but the first time, that was the way to do it.
I wasn't sure if I was going to like Skyrim. I'm not generally into action games and first person games make me motion sick. So I bought it for the cheapest possible price, by buying an old CD code (since the original version is disabled on Steam).
Turns out, I love Skyrim. It's like The Sims 3 but with one person and they kill dragons. It has all the roleplaying that I like and it didn't even make me motion sick. When it went on sale, I bought the special edition with all the DLC, since that was cheaper than buying the DLC for the old version and I've now been playing it for a few months. I've reached the point of Skyrim where half the game is adding mods then trouble-shooting the mods you just added to see if your save will still load.
Skyrim was originally released in 2011, so my PC could handle it, but mods were pushing it. I'm starting a graduate scheme in September, which will mean more money coming in. Those things together made now seem like a good time to upgrade, since I'll have two months with nothing to do but play.
I started by using UserBenchMark to see how my PC was doing. It turns out, my little integrated graphics card was performing better than 99% of its sisters, that is, the same graphics card installed in different machines. Unfortunately, that card was only getting about 3% of the performance of newer cards, and it wasn't the best since it's just the one that's installed in my i5-4440, that is the CPU that came installed in my PC. That was the obvious upgrade. I also wanted to get a solid state drive, or SSD, which is faster than my old hard-drive, and some new RAM.
I used PCPartPicker to pick out some pieces that would match. I ended up needing a new pc case - did you know graphics cards are huge? - and a new motherboard. I first got a second-hand Nvidia GTE 1060 which was £125 second-hand. I starting writing this post about 9 months ago and that one kept breaking down, so I've since replaced it with an AMD RX 580 which is working a lot better. That was £100 second-hand.
I first upgraded the RAM to 8gb of Patriot Viper DDR3, then to 16gb. Since the 16gb is also Patriot Viper DDR3, after installing it, I put the 8gb into the other two slots, and they all seem to be working together. It's probably not working as well as if I'd somehow bought one pack of 24gb RAM, but it's working better than 16gb by itself, so I'll take it. The 16gb cost around £40, and the 8GB was £25. For context, you're ideally supposed to buy all your ram sticks in one package, because then all the sticks will have been tested to make sure they work smoothly together. If you don't do that, using the same brand increases your chances of them being compatible. Or so I've read. Go on and correct me if I'm wrong.
I can't remember what my old motherboard was, but now it's a second-hand Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H which is working great. That was £30 on eBay. I don't remember if I strictly needed to replace it, or if I just wanted to. The case was also about £30. I also needed a new power supply, which was £25.
That's about as far as I can go with that, since I didn't want to buy a new CPU. At some point, I'll need to buy a new CPU, which will mean buying a new motherboard, which will mean buying new RAM. That's because, a few generations after the i5, the way the core connects to the motherboard changed. The i5-4440 has an 1150 socket, so it can only be attached to motherboards with that same connector. The RAM connectors also changed. Upgraded motherboards tend to accept DDR4 RAM, not DDR3.
I upgraded my hard drive to a Crucial MX500 1TB solid state drive, which cost just shy of £80. I did also need a new SATA cable, which was about £12. I still have my old hard drive in there. I use it to store Steam games that don't suffer from being on the slower drive. In theory, I can still plug in the CD drive from my original PC, but it won't fit into the case, so I need to leave the cables sticking out through one of the air holes if I want to do that and kind of balance the CD drive next to it.
Anyway, this whole thing was much, much easier and cheaper than I expected it to be. The first round of upgrades came to around £330, which is about what I paid for the PC back in 2013, and the second round was another £140. There were some tricky moments, but nothing I couldn't get past with a YouTube tutorial.
When wiring the thing together, make sure it's switched off and look out for static electricity. Don't wear anything fluffy, don't work on a carpet, and remember to earth yourself by touching something metal before touching your PC. The trickiest bit was resetting the motherboard by purposefully connected two pins with a metal screwdriver, and that was mostly because I'd read so many warnings about static electricity that purposefully causing electricity to arc through the motherboard seemed daunting. It worked though. Don't do that unless your specific motherboard needs it. Mine did because it was second-hand and the previous owner had set a password on it.
Skyrim is now running smoothly with 300+ mods, so that's what I'll be doing for the foreseeable future.
Death Stranding has some finicky controls, and it's impossible to play unless you're able to use the trigger buttons to steady yourself. Unfortunately, there's an issue with trigger buttons being completely unrecognised if you're playing with a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller via Steam.
To fix it, right click on the game in your library and go to manage controller. It should be using the official layout, as shown below.
Click on edit layout, and then on 'triggers' in the list on the left.
I've just had an issue with Skyrim that google didn't know the answer to. One of my NPCs - Rumarin from interesting NPCs - had an invisible body. Usually, this issue is due to an armour mesh being broken, so the solution would be to reinstall any armour mods and verify the game files in Steam. That wasn't the problem I had. Rumarin was invisible in both the thieves armour, which showed fine for other characters, and in no armour.
The problem I had, it turned out, was that somehow, the NPC had been set to "invisible race." The fix was to open the console (tilde key,~, below the esc key), highlight the NPC - either click on them or type "prid <ref ID>" - then type "setrace <race>", in this case, "HighElf."
Since they have incompatible orientations (i.e., they are both gay) they use artificial insemination, by which I mean, I used pregnancy cheats.
"...and, much like a conductor, I have arranged events."
"Yes! I AM happy that Tory will be healthy!"
Hialeah declares Remy her nemesis and storms off. She's going to move to another city and start a new life, because that's what she does when traumatic things happen. Only, this time, she's not taking her brothers.
Remember that I'm combining two zodiac challenges to guide my generations here. The guidelines for the dragon for this challenge are:
Your home life was too perfect! You now feel the need to act out and explore all your options.
I do still think of this as an ongoing project, I just haven't been playing for a while.
The ancient junkbot must be RJ-73, who, along with Hialeah, is currently taking care of Chelsea and Richard's babies.