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 Friends, LP watchers, goons of all stripes... Let's Get Weird NOTE FOR THIS LP I almost always put a little intro dialogue into my LPs, and it's usually there just for fluff. I genuinely think this LP requires more explanation, so please do read it this time! ALSO NOTE: Strict no-spoiler policy, not even in tags, ya animals. We'll get there.  Videos uploading, your kindly patience is presh - 1 through 4 recorded, will be up soonish!          BUT TL;DR? Fine. This game is hyper weird, and kind of wonderful. I don't even know if it's good, but I want to show it off. The first post includes the "intro" of the game, which is actually kind of sizeable. I just wanted to get it all done in one chunk. The next part of the game I'll be playing blind, with all of you. It's VERY DIFFERENT from the first part, though it builds on it organically. It's basically unique in games I've played so far. It involves programming. I hope you love it! For, for the full story... Bacter, what in the Sam Hill is this I honestly don't even know where to start with this. else Heart.Break() is a.... game? Ok. It's set in sort of the real world but sort of not - in the fictional island of Dorisburg. You're Sebastian, a young layabout. For the first, no joke, two hours of the game, it plays like a kind of confusing, sort of dream-like, kind of ominous point and click adventure game. Then, two hours in, everything changes suddenly, and you're playing a very different game. Like a different genre. One that I don't think I've seen attempted in the way that it is here. Ok... It took me like three or four tries to get a foothold on this game. There's a timed day/night cycle, and a story that plays out in this big, big explorable city, and not a whole lot of prompting, and honestly all the freedom and the VERY vague sense of direction just made me nervous. Not to mention the fact that I thought the game was going to be.. the way it is after the two-hour segment at first, and I wasn't experiencing ANY of it. I thought I was off-track, missing everything, and had no idea how to right the ship. I didn't want to just go through walkthroughs. I was stuck. So what happened? I just really wanted to play the game I'd read about in reviews, so I kept at it until I finally figured out what was what - and goons, I gotta tell you, the experience was INTERESTING. What was the game you heard about? I was promised a game where reality kind of falls away, and you extend your influence and control over a story that had constricted you into... well, imagine if instead of just getting the power to fly and punch, Neo from the Matrix actually started using his abilities. Kind of like that. So is the game good? I... genuinely have no idea. It's INTERESTING. I don't know if I'd recommend for everybody to play it. I actually think it's perfect for a Let's Play, because the first part is kind of annoying, and would be much better to see walked-through than actually played. The second part is... I think it's absolutely PERFECT for collaboration. Which is why this is my first blind LP. I'm putting up four videos to start, which take you from the intro to where I got in the game. At that point, I've reached the 'main content', and, as promised, the things we can do expand ENORMOUSLY. And I'd like to play it together, at that point. Sounds good. What's this intro? What I've posted here are four videos, each around the 30 minute mark. They deal with the game when it's still a Shenmune-style adventure game. I don't think they're TERRIBLE, but you've seen the format before. The art is great, the music is quite good, the dialogue is... kind of off? But not BAD, just kind of dreamy. SIDE NOTE Do you speak Swedish natively? I will literally buy you a copy of this game, provided you play it and tell me how natural the dialogue sounds to you! I want to know how much of this is atmosphere-building, and how much of it is translation issues. At the end of these videos, you'll be past that, and the real work will begin. Spoiler: it involves programming. Like, real programming! If you're a programmer already: congrats, I'll want your help and input. If you're not a programmer already: please watch! My goal is to put in absolutely everything you need to know (and the game includes helpful files to assist with this). We'll be working basically totally collaboratively after the intro. Our goals, where we go / what we do will be set by you. I plan on abusing the save system as well (I truly feel that this is within the spirit of the game), so if we want to do a project that would take a long time, we don't have to actually have 10 in-game days pass while we do it. Look, you'll see. Let me know impressions about the atmosphere, characters, story, music, graphics on the first four videos. I'll have plenty to say, but when we're all done, we'll REALLY start rocking. Watch on, droogs! Bacter fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Sep 22, 2019 |
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Aug 22, 2019 07:14
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Bacter posted:SIDE NOTE Do you speak Swedish natively? I will literally buy you a copy of this game, provided you play it and tell me how natural the dialogue sounds to you! I want to know how much of this is atmosphere-building, and how much of it is translation issues. If I had any time to actually play video games instead of just watching LPs, I'd take you up on that offer, but I'd be interested in maybe seeing a bonus video showing off some of the Swedish dialogue. From what I've seen of the English dialogue, though, nothing jumps out at me as being a translation issue. There aren't any "Swedish-isms" or things of that nature that I'd expect from a too literal translation. But I've only watched the first video so far, so maybe some will show up later.
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Aug 23, 2019 02:59
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Rinaldo posted:If I had any time to actually play video games instead of just watching LPs, I'd take you up on that offer, but I'd be interested in maybe seeing a bonus video showing off some of the Swedish dialogue. From what I've seen of the English dialogue, though, nothing jumps out at me as being a translation issue. There aren't any "Swedish-isms" or things of that nature that I'd expect from a too literal translation. But I've only watched the first video so far, so maybe some will show up later. Actually, that's a way better idea. It's not.... hm. It's not that it's badly translated? I don't really know how to say this correctly - a lot of the dialogue just sounds kind of vague. I'll get some dialogue-heavy bits and post the Swedish at some point! ALSO NOTE All prologue sections are uploading now - 1-3 should be up and good, 4 is getting online. I'll plan on showing off a few simple tricks with the new abilities we have after part 4, then we'll get to the business of what to do next!
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Aug 23, 2019 03:03
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I am a computer toucher IRL and would be happy to help out with the programming stuff if you want. I find the title’s syntax fairly recognizable so even if it doesn’t use a “real” programming language I can probably make out what’s meant to be happening. <edit: looks more like you meant just "taking suggestions from the audience">
Akratic Method fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Aug 24, 2019 |
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Aug 23, 2019 03:19
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I love hacking games and this seemed like my jam but I didn't get it cause of the reviews.
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Aug 23, 2019 04:06
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Ahhh, what a tragic game. The game is incredibly interesting and encourages you to bend reality, but the story is a Shenmue-style completely linear string of events that don't like being messed with. I've completed it so I won't make suggestions, but I look forward to compiler shenanigans from someone competent at programming. It took me forever to even unlock the compiler.
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Aug 23, 2019 06:30
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I liked EHB. It's really more of a sandbox than an adventure game; the story is short and linear and barely scratches the surface of the toys you can play with. It's best played with a sense of curiosity and a drive to try things just to see if they're possible. Because they usually are, once you figure out the code.
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Aug 23, 2019 10:13
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Just watched part 2, so here are some thoughts. While $799 is quite the steep price for a pair of shoes, 799SEK on the other hand is entirely reasonable, so I'll be interested to see if the Swedish version uses SEK as the currency and they just changed it to $ for the translation without changing any of the prices. Is that a consistent thing in the game, that everything seems way overpriced? Still, the game gives you the option to comment on how expensive the shoes are, so maybe they're meant to be. To answer your question in the video, yes, smoking is still popular enough in Sweden that the girl asking you for a cigarette doesn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary. Not as popular as snus, though, which is the Swedish tobacco product of choice, at least for men.
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Aug 23, 2019 12:55
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A Bacter LP and of a game I've been curious about for years! Heck yes! 
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Aug 23, 2019 14:31
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Rinaldo posted:Just watched part 2, so here are some thoughts. Well, we’re meant to charge $3 a soda, so it’s at least not COMPLETELY consistent.
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Aug 23, 2019 19:33
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Okay, I'm going to say that the first thing we should do is get into Room 3. Because either (a) someone has wedged that dresser in front of the door (but helpfully left the sign to remind you that there's a door there), or (b) they've hacked the door itself to look like a dresser. Second: can we hack people? Third: can we hack our credit card for infinite cash? Not that a reality-warping god really needs it, but it'd be handy to know.
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Aug 24, 2019 00:01
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Right, actually watched the videos now. Babcia is pronounced "bab-cha" - it's the Polish word for Grandma. Don't know if it's also a real name or just a nickname for her. I guess the main point of the radio station sidequest is to give you a reason to think the Ministry are bad guys. Having someone's place of business taken over by men in black searching for something gives a big dystopian feel. Add on that Dorisburg in general is a city of free-spirited bohemian types, and it's easy to see why people are working against them. I actually got my first modifier by a completely different route when I played! Like, not even from the same person. There's another line of inquiry to get one, a bit quicker than following Pixie around for three days. You asked for no spoilers, though, so I won't say how in case you want to follow that... So, suggestions for what to do? I'd go with doing something about your amount of inventory space. Maybe try to find a convenient way to store items when you're not using them, especially all those floppies you keep finding around. Also, secure a way to get those $700 shoes.
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Aug 24, 2019 00:30
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Yeah I see what you mean about this game. I think the biggest problem is the writing honestly, it just feels incredibly stilted. I guess due to the open-ended nature of it that kind of makes sense to take this approach, but the story certainly suffers for it. You're absolutely right about the Ministry though. That was a real chance of worldbuilding that they missed out on there. "Hey my dude did you drink some cola? well guess what, they record your name and room number using the cola itself. Know how the cola makes you less sleepy? Well it works that way by modifying you. So how else are they going to modify you in the future?" Shame, this kind of gameplay is SUPER appealing to me and the hacking aesthetic is usually my jam but I'm not feeling this game right now. Also would typing in "return level >=0" work as well? EDIT: let's loving hack our credit card and get some shoes. Get the 1000 dollar ones to flex on the plebes. Seraphic Neoman fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Aug 24, 2019 |
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Aug 24, 2019 05:46
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What happens when you write an infinite loop? What about an infinite recursive function? What about something that doesn't diverge but is very expensive, like the Ackermann function? Can you enumerate all the primitive functions? Like, is there a global object on which Goto is defined? Can you redefine primitive functions? How does the number type deal with NaN and +/- infinity? Do strings understand encoding? edit: If you remove the Allow function from the modifier entirely, what happens? edit(2): Since arrays look more like dicts, can you make a self-referential array? edit(3): it's weird that the thing wants you to declare the types of things when dicts map variants to variants edit(4!): What happens when you return a number or a string from the Allow function? invlwhen fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Aug 24, 2019 |
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Aug 24, 2019 05:58
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Can you edit in more inventory space for your bag?
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Aug 24, 2019 14:34
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Can you make yourself a Cola that will send you home for when you get lost? EDIT : Or one that never runs out? Is that a variable?
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Aug 24, 2019 14:52
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The two things I'd like to see are a tour of the area and what things can be altered. Like can you make a coffee to refill itself? Or a soda can that replaces itself when drunk? Can you alter people? Yourself? Your inventory size? Can you alter something so that it alters other things? Like a street lamp that alters other street lamps. Can you change a chair so that when a npc sits in it, it teleports them to somewhere else? Can you copy people? Are you a god now?
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Aug 24, 2019 19:19
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I dig the way this game looks. Sucks that you have to be a total creepazoid to advance the plot tho. What were they thinking?
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Aug 24, 2019 21:00
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You're right this game does seem rather weird. I think some of it is almost by necessity of being open world, things need to make sufficient sense when you randomly encounter them, or maybe lose track of someone you're supposed to follow, so they end up being awkward when you are following the plot. Rinaldo already explained snus, I'll just add that SprakManual = språk manual = language manual.
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Aug 25, 2019 09:33
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You were wondering in the video about that feministfrequency.com link; well, I mean... it's Feminist Frequency! It's Anita Sarkeesian's thing. Anyway yeah so far I'm not that fond of the writing in this. It's slow and clunky and almost everyone comes across as kind of unpleasant. The small bit of hacking we've seen so far reminds me of using the console in the Elder Scrolls and (recent) Fallout games. If you can see something so you can directly click on it - or you know its RefID - and you know various console commands - then you can do... whatever. ("Whatever" is kind of what it feels like in this game so far too; not much in the way of story or motivation yet. Sure you can hack things, but... to what end? Why are we doing any of this stuff, really?) Are the videos supposed to be in that weird aspect ratio with black space on the right and bottom of the frame? In the videos when you were hinting that something was going to unlock at the end of the fourth episode, I'd wondered if that space was going to be filled with more UI or something, but not so far...?
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Aug 25, 2019 13:37
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I am a native speaker and would love to help out with the Swedish, I have a thing about language and translating and this sounds interesting. In the first vid, riff raff to me sounds like a typical example of someone being generally decent at English using a word or expression they picked up from media. Sprakmanual is probably språkmanual, literally language manual. It seems to be purposefully left as is, since it is spelled with an a instead of an å. Swedes are generally seen as being very well dressed, the fashion in the game is just weird I am guessing. Snus is a bit like snuff, a very Swedish thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus Are you with me is definitely a Swedishism, "är du med?", and variations thereof means "are you keeping up?" in this context. The rest of the conversation makes it less certain that that is the intended meaning though. The suitcase being called a bag is definitely a translation issue too, since väska can mean suitcase, purse, tote et cetera in Swedish. From what I've seen so far it seems like weird translations but I'd need to see it in Swedish to prove that. Some text files would be fine, no need to buy me the game.
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Aug 25, 2019 16:25
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This game reminds me a lot of Hack 'n Slash which starts out as a swordfighting adventure type of game except then you gain hacking powers to edit the game around you. I got it when it was free on Steam for a weekend but personally I didn't enjoy it that much. Similar concept though.
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Aug 26, 2019 21:42
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The reviews for this game (even the negative ones) are magical, just reading the crazy stuff you can do makes me really interested in what's happening next.
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Aug 26, 2019 22:57
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gently caress yes. This game is amazing but I'm pretty sure I have never actually recommended it to anyone. I have a feeling describing it is detrimental to all but the most hardcore of DOS fans. I'm glad this is being LPd, you sure can pick em.
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Aug 29, 2019 10:12
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Your party advice is very true to life.
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Sep 1, 2019 12:15
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Hey here's an idea: you know the radio in the Soda warehouse? You can use the dial on that to choose different functions, based on a review I read you can make each selection do a different thing, lots of potential. Another fun idea is maybe seeing if you can use hacking to be really good at selling sodas somehow.
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Sep 1, 2019 17:26
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Tombot posted:Hey here's an idea: you know the radio in the Soda warehouse? You can use the dial on that to choose different functions, based on a review I read you can make each selection do a different thing, lots of potential. Another fun idea is maybe seeing if you can use hacking to be really good at selling sodas somehow. Yeah if you can hack the soda to inspect or remove the tracking code, and change its effect on sleepiness, you can probably also modify it to cause a high of some sort. I.e. put the coke back in the cola, making everyone addicts. Question is whether the game simulates on that level, or at least can handle that case specifically...
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Sep 1, 2019 18:34
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I'm not dead! Sorry for the pause in LP - I was getting ready for something Big (which maybe went through? it's not LP-related, but it took all me time). Your kind suggestions have been logged, and are being implemented AS WE SPEAK.
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Sep 4, 2019 04:25
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Maybe if you need more ideas you could read some of the reviews yourself, theres a lot of funny and interesting stuff there.
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Sep 4, 2019 17:24
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Now that you've got a modifier, is there a point to carrying keys? I mean, if you run across a locked door, couldn't you just copy+paste an "IF getuser==Sebastian THEN unlock" function onto every door; let alone just pointing any door towards your destination.
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Sep 13, 2019 11:47
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I noticed you made a couple of videos, but havent posted them on the thread yet for some reason. Oh also, Seeing as floppy discs can just have text and no programming, could you maybe use one as a makeshift notepad for jotting down names and ideas?
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Sep 14, 2019 01:45
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Alright! The thing is done - I'm really super excited just in my real life! I've been working as a data scientist/machine learning guy for a fraud prevention company, stopping financial fraud, which is, you know, important! Good stuff! But not really... it doesn't use all of my background, and I wanted to be doing something else. So I've been on the interview trail for a while with a new company that's doing cancer research, and got the data science job with them. Absolutely over the moon, but the takeaway for YOU is that now we're ready to see some more HACKING! I'd mentioned before that the game REALLY opened up for me, and the various requests that i got post-revelation actually mirrored my desires when I encountered this in-game. I wanted to get to know the city more, I wanted to figure out what I could hack, figure out what to do about my soda job, AND figure out the esoteric nature of Sprak. I'm going to split the videos into three tracks for now, roughly following those desires: one for esoteric hacking, one for practical hacking (get into places, hack sodas, get me some dang money and shoes, find out what kind of code is out there, etc.) and one for exploration and meeting people. I am finding a LOT of promise in all these areas, and I'd like continual direction as to what to do next!  Still uploading! Bacter fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 02:56
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So cards on the table, I have a few requests of my own, that I'll be splitting up. Obviously Exploration will continue. There are a TON of little sub-rooms and apartments to go into. I plan to do exploration videos like this: Big overview of the exploration of North/West Dorisburg, and one of South/East Dorisburg, THEN smaller much more heavily edited videos where I show off any fun apartments or sub-areas I run into. I doubt anybody wants to watch me check out identical apartment #203 (though you COULD - the game is PRETTY BIG). There are also some "big ticket" areas. There's the home base of the bureaucrats, a casino, the hospital, the mines, the factory... all places we should check out! I just don't know when (and I'd kind of like to get a lot of tricks up my sleeve first). For Programming my next goal is to explore the CONNECT function. I also have kind of a programming/exploration double goal, in that I want to wander around and collect a code base. My working theory about connect is that we'll be able to hijack the native methods of other objects, and I'll want to find the most interesting functions to do that with. For Hacking I've got really two goals - I want to improve my teleportation ability, via door hacking, and I want to see if I can make an omni-key. Without going TOO much into it, inscrutable horse, your plan doesn't work RIGHT NOW because getUser() isn't a native method in a key. I'll need to find out if there's a way to MAKE it a native method, probably through connect? Also, I'm really not sure if I'm going too in-depth or not enough for the programming and hacking bits, please let me know if you'd like more or less detail! Also, uh, there IS a main plot still kind of going on? We were brushed off by our stalkee, but told that she might want to hang out later. I could investigate them more, if you'd like! I really really like this game, I'm remembering! I have to tell you, goons, I had more fun sitting on that dumb street programming a fusebox to perform the Ackerman function than I had in basically the whole of Fallout 3/4, because there was this weird clockwork world going on around me, but I was doing what I wanted to for reasons that made sense to me, and it was WORKING. Being a hacker wizard is fantastic, as it turns out! I'll be doing some more exploratory programming tonight, so if anything comes of it I'll post it! Tombot posted:I noticed you made a couple of videos, but havent posted them on the thread yet for some reason. Oh also, Seeing as floppy discs can just have text and no programming, could you maybe use one as a makeshift notepad for jotting down names and ideas? Good eye - that's on account of I wanted to keep working, but didn't want to post here until I had a hacking/programming/exploration video trio up. Also, I could absolutely hijack one for a notepad, and that's a great idea, and it's happening immediately with door names! Edit Also, I AM curious about my job - I do want to go and hack the soda computer and see what it's up to. Bacter fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 03:04
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It seems the game expects you to pick up suitcases and whatnot in order to get more space, since they have their own separate options in the inventory bag selection. Resident Evil approach to the problem. also hoo boy the game did not like your self-referential array shenanigans
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Sep 21, 2019 18:43
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Your enthusiasm for this game is infectious and delightful to see. I am happy for your interesting new career Bacter!
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Sep 21, 2019 18:52
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I'm still working my way through the videos, but congrats on the awesome new job!
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Sep 21, 2019 18:53
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"Dorisburg has a thriving export economy!" "What does it export?" "Goods!" "What kind of goods?" "...Manufactured goods?"
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Sep 21, 2019 19:05
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Hmmm. We know that "MonadsApartment" is a location, so how about we take a wild guess that it probably has a door and hack another door to lead us to "MonadsApartment_Door1"? Might be worth a try!
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Sep 21, 2019 20:34
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Two LP tech things: 1) Screen size, you have black bars on the right and bottom of the game itself, so it's not taking up the full video frame. Any particular reason for this? 2) Your voice volume is low relative to the game audio, you may want to amplify it, possibly run it through a compressor to get some more headroom for amplification. It's better in the Hack 1 video than in the other two.
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Sep 21, 2019 20:35
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What was happening when you tested out infinite loops and the Ackermann function seems to be an execution time limit. If you program runs for too long it gets terminated, regardless of memory or stack usage. (Edit: Same with the self-referential array, it tried to expand it to a string and ran out of execution steps at some point before finishing.) Also, maybe use a computer terminal with display and keyboard for future hacking experiments, so you can Print instead of Say 
nielsm fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 21:29
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