Topics

1

Help / Bits Sent drops from 1023 to 16, causing faux lag

« on: October 12, 2014, 07:48:08 PM »

Occasionally when I'm playing on a server, I'll start lagging - still able to see people chat and move around, but I'm immobile and can't say anything.

The lag is coincidental with the "Bits Sent" value in the ctrl+N menu dropping from 1023 (usual) to 16 (bugged.) The bits sent seems to return to 1023 if an admin d-wands you. It also solved by reconnecting.

None the less, this bug is annoying and I'm wondering if there's a fix.

2

Off Topic / cmd.fm

« on: September 17, 2014, 09:00:07 PM »

cmd.fm

Basically a generic music player with a command prompt interface. It's pretty cool.

3

Off Topic / Autodesk Programs Nanothread

« on: August 23, 2014, 09:48:17 PM »

http://www.autodesk.com/

Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, and entertainment industries.

I got into Autodesk by way of one of my engineering classes, and I figured I'd spread the word around and see what other programs they use. I personally use Inventor and AutoCAD, and I'm trying to learn Maya.


http://www.autodesk.com/products/inventor/overview

Autodesk Inventor, developed by U.S.-based software company Autodesk, is 3D mechanical CAD design software for creating 3D digital prototypes used in the design, visualization and simulation of products.

Inventor is probably my favorite Autodesk product. It's like AutoCAD but newer, shinier, and way better (and easier) to use. It's just a whole lot of fun to go off and design fantastical machines that I would probably never see put into production, and considering that I own the free student version, I wouldn't be able to make a profit anyway.


http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/overview

AutoCAD is a commercial software application for 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting — available since 1982 as a desktop application and since 2010 as a mobile web- and cloud-based app marketed as AutoCAD 360.

AutoCAD was the first Autodesk program I learned to use, before Inventor. It was (IIRC) the first Autodesk program ever published and it's an oldie. It's like old man's inventor, but architects seem to use it a lot so I wouldn't totally leave it out. I've made some stuff with it, like this logo:




http://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview

Autodesk Maya /ˈmɑːjə/, commonly shortened to Maya, is a 3D computer graphics software that runs on Windows, OS X and Linux, originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation (formerly Alias|Wavefront) and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications, including video games, animated film, TV series, or visual effects. The product is named after the Sanskrit word Maya (माया māyā), the Hindu concept of illusion.

I'm terrible at it, but Maya is a program for animating stuff. I can't even get a walking animation working yet, so I've got some work to do. It's pretty intuitive like the rest of Autodesk's products. It's an incredible company that makes lots of very good programs.


http://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/overview

Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It was developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment.[1] It has modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and can be used on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is frequently used by video game developers, many TV commercial studios and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization.

Video made with 3ds max: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtWPW8yJtgM

I can't do 3ds Max.


http://www.autodesk.com/products/revit-family/overview

Autodesk Revit is Building information modeling software for architects, structural engineers, MEP engineers, designers and contractors. It allows users to design a building and structure and its components in 3D, annotate the model with 2D drafting elements and access building information from the building models database. Revit is 4D BIM capable with tools to plan and track various stages in the building's lifecycle, from concept to construction and later demolition.

I'll add some more programs later.

Feel free to talk about anything Autodesk-related, what programs you use, what you've made, etc.
None of these images except for the V logo are mine. Don't sue me.

4

Off Topic / Bill Gates is a cool guy.

« on: August 15, 2014, 09:23:39 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msGRhXicoSA

He's just an all around really cool guy.

I posted this in Drama like an idiot.
Now it's in the right place, put down your pitchforks.

5

Gallery / Gentoo's Mini Empires - "dammit poly"

« on: June 10, 2014, 04:15:12 AM »

I (Polywater) have seen our names thrown around a bit. "The veterans of mini empires," "the pros," such things like that. So here's a Gallery topic that has been requested a whopping one time.

Yeah, Gentoos is some good stuff.

Yeah. Gentoo's server is your best bet for a civilized MERP

Yes, a lot of mini empires stuff ends up being chess piece type deals. Gentoo builds jaw dropping MERPs and you never see anything in gallery. That's because it's just too minor to post.

Well, AdinX, you're in luck.

Here's a smattering of pictures from our latest game.
One of Gentoo's towns

Another shot of same town

One of Woowoo's cargo facilities and administration buildings

"Skalva" by Kiwibear and me

One of Gentoo's bunkers

A giant cathedral mech by Lordy Lord

A rag-tag camp by Revoloarx

One of my airfields

A bunch of unfinished space stations by Revoloarx

LATER EDIT: Non-stock image that I like quite a lot


Rate stuff in whatever system you want to. Contact your local congressman for more information.

There is also way more where this came from, if you guys want to see more.
Way more. Four years' worth more.

6

Off Topic / Just got a job flying this beauty.

« on: October 07, 2013, 04:14:03 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OG6q7zo6uQ

7

Off Topic / Five-year old logic.

« on: September 22, 2013, 11:12:16 AM »

I have a five-year old sister who's really overweight and overemotional.

Last night, probably at around 11 P.M., she was told to go to bed. She obligatorily did the whole drama-queen thing, "I'M NOT TIRED," etc., before attempting to physically demonstrate she wasn't tired.

Literally, she just walked forward, caught a piece of paper under her foot, and went head-over-heels right onto the ground with a comical thunk, like the sound of a ripe coconut smashing into a cartoon's skull. I watched this entire thing unfold before me.

At this point, she got really angry, as she was trying to be serious about not being sleepy, whilst everyone was giggling at her. I think she was trying to make a real point, but had her dignity ruined by this.

The only thing that was injured was her ego.

Discuss dumb things small children do.

8

Off Topic / What happened to the Search button?

« on: May 06, 2013, 07:55:36 PM »

Is it just me, or is the BLF's "Search" button missing?

And if so, where'd it go?

9

Off Topic / Stereotypical petition of sympathetic responses and advice.

« on: April 11, 2013, 08:30:58 PM »

I wish to acknowledge that this is not an ordinary, or as presumed, 'stereotypical' sympathy-whoring thread, but instead, a call for aid in senses moral and otherwise.

I will begin with saying: my life is fine. There is nothing wrong with it, I have a life as good as anyone else's is or ever will be. I do not abide by normal and automatic, pubescent responses such as "I have been going through some stuff," or "everybody hates me, I should kill myself." No, instead: I am socially retrograde.

I am a cynical skeptic, as if an aura of extreme pessimism surrounds me. My problem lies within my confines of behavior.

As an intermittent statement, I do follow 'moral' advice, such as 'treat others how you would expect yourself to be treated.' Unfortunately, I carry this to an extent where it becomes part of me. My natural cynicism warps the natural meaning of this statement, i.e. be nice to everyone, and takes it literally. I expect everyone to treat me under negative eyes, and so I, while meaning no harm, treat others as such.

Another literally-absorbed statement is this: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Insults do not apply to me. I am, quite literally, impossible to impress through words or text. But my problem lies within a few factors:

One, lack of a moral filter. I do not consider so-called 'insults' before making them, assuming they carry no weight to their target.

Two, I lack any form of social guidelines; to me, no topic, no thing, is taboo. Taboos do not exist within my mind, and therefore I speak openly about subjects such as homoloveuality, abortion, and politics freely without any consideration of verbally assaulting my limited audience. That segways into the third and final issue,

I forgo any positive reputation, or as most would call it, 'street cred.' This causes a feedback loop in my mind, therefore my problem worsens over time. I am transferring to a new institution next school year, and so this would be my opportunity to resolve that.

But I am full of self-depreciation. However, this is completely negated by my mental shield to insults, self-depreciating or otherwise. I can openly say that I am misanthropic, and I lack any sort of faith, hope, etc. in others. And so, to give pure, unadulterated/unabridged me in social situations, here is my philosophy.

Life means nothing and is nothing. Nobody will remember you after your death, and eventually, there will be nobody to remember you and any accomplishments of the human race at all. There will be no human race, and nothing is worth anything.

But I, through a tiny glimmer of light in the void that I exist in, realize my flaws. And so, instead of going to a psychiatrist (which by any means a reasonable person would do,) I will go to the world's most diverse and skilled psychiatrist, philosopher, and proverbial wingman: the Internet.

I ask for your advice, because I want to change my demeanor into something more socially acceptable, if not simply filtered to know what will and won't work in social situations.

Basically, I want to reclaim the infinite bell curve that is social adaptability, acceptance, or the true impossibility for any person: normality.

Thanks for reading.

"TL;DR": If you look to this one line first, then you are of no use and may go about your day without further interruption from me.

THE EDIT FOR LAYMEN

Help me, I'm not normal.
My life is fine, so I'm not going to complain about my life being horrible.

I am cynical; i.e. I hate people and myself. But I can't be insulted. Insults don't work for me, because I never become insulted.

I treat others as I would expect myself treated: with a negative manner.

I do not speak to others thinking about how they might react. I expect no reaction from something possibly insulting. I expect people to have a skin, basically.

But they don't. I always insult people, accidentally or otherwise. I lack any normal social guidelines, because I make my own. My own guidelines are often not accepted, and so people regard me as either:

insane,
or a douchebag.

[In y'alls cases, I am regarded as someone who tries too hard.]

Please help me, I need advice from normal people.

10

General Discussion / TDM Rant 2 - Return of the Buttclench

« on: January 28, 2013, 06:58:52 PM »

I'm here to complain about TDMs, so you can look at my incessant whining and try to make sense out of it. This is a topic that really bugs me about the majority of the TDM's out there -- weaponry balance, and then knife TDM's. I will be using "Super's TDM!" as a prime example of these.

So. Here is the weaponry room. Good build style - quick and to the point. I'm going to point out the use of Tier+Tactical weapons, that's good. The main issue here is the mixing of different tiers. For example, note the Modern Pistol in the corner, with the revolver above it.

The Modern Pistol is free, which isn't an issue. It's a well-rounded starter weapon, that has the potency to not be useless at all ranges. The revolver above it, however, costs points. It has similar accuracy to the MP, but does a hell of a lot more damage, and headshots.

Here is the issue with this - the point-costing weapon is a complete upgrade from the 'base' weapon. This makes it possible, whilst using only that weapon, to wipe out any using solely the one below, with more ease. The one balancing factor is the revolver having less ammo - but that's not a huge determining factor. 1 headshot with this, as far as I can tell, is an instant kill.

The same example can be seen with the automatic rifle and the Light MG. The lower one is a lower-level version than the top one, whilst the lower weapon is free.

Summarizing, this creates a divide between players new to join the server, and ones that have been playing for a while. This TDM focuses on players that play more, and thus keeping a limited audience from truly enjoying the game. This example is not an extreme case of imbalance - using Glass's server would be a far more extreme instance. It also shows a lack of care for the way the game is set up. This method of creating a weaponry system is lazy and shows no respect for the people that take time out of their lives to play on your server. Please, stop doing this. A balanced class system, maybe? Something that supports different play-styles?

I'm also going to complain about knife TDM's as is done so much. I assume the majority of readers are going to know what I am talking about. There is no creativity involved with butterfly knife TDMs. It is ALL bandwagoning, trying to jump on the opportunity to become known within the community. Some people are going to love these TDM's, of course. I don't have an issue with that. It's the factor that the majority of TDMs nowadays are these stuffty knife TDMs built on non-creative floating platforms, colored with neon. People need to add an interesting factor to them, for there is no replayability value.

I know some of you will proceed to yell at me "WLL IF U DONT LIKE IT, MK UR OWN!!!!!!1!!1!." And sure. I respect that - for it is a respectable opinion that matters. I will say, that I might as well just do that. But I know some people that share the same opinion as me - TDMs need a complete makeover and reform, as they have become stale, repetitive, and moreover lazy in construction. So please, hear me out here: Be creative. Brainstorm. Come up with new factors in your game that make it new, fresh, and exciting. Allow it to be balanced for all play styles out there.

tl;dr: If you think I'm going to let you get away with being lazy and not reading, think again. Read the above.

Thus, discuss.

11

Creativity / I wrote a short passage totally not ripping off SCP.

« on: January 23, 2013, 08:37:07 PM »

BEHOLD, THE PRODUCT OF 10 MINUTES AND NOTEPAD.


A dense fog filled a small, dark room. The lackluster walls of this aforementioned room were made out of bricks painted a dull blue, the floors a
boring linoleum. The floor was peculiar, it was coated in a slippery, grey substance that seemingly camefrom nowhere, even after cleaning. There were no lights of any description; the only light in this room came in through a small glass window on the large blast door marking the entrance.  A breathy voice of a seemingly old man crackled over the intercom in the room, coming from a small speaker in the corner.

"Wakey-wakey."

A malnourised man sitting in the corner stirred, and let out a low gargling noise. His face was stretched across his bony features. He wore no shirt, and all of his ribs were clearly outlined. His only attire was a pair of dark denim jeans that were torn up at the legs. He posessed small, beady eyes that gave off a dim white glow, illuminating the fog around him. His gaze shifted to the door, but no living being was in sight. Hoisting himself to his feet, he propped himself up on the wall and ran his hands through his patchy, dark hair, thinking about how he was going to get out.

"Good, you're up." The speaker shifted over to the side, causing a rustle through the microphone. He called over to his team-mates, "relocate him."

The door let out a loud hissing of pneumatics, and split into two parts. Several gangly-looking men in orange jumpsuits stood through the door, looking at the poor inhabitant of the room.

Within a second, the man was gone.

Tell me what you guys think of my writing style.

12

Gallery / Polywater's Apartment/Condo/Whatever, thing [AoB app]

« on: January 07, 2013, 07:03:20 AM »

I've built this as an AoB application, as well as a thing to do for the winter break. I've put, a good 5 hours or so of work into this, over the whole of the break. It's gone through ~3 complete floor-plan shifts.

Note, this was in no way intended to copy Icy's apartment, that's just a coincidence of release-time.

time for the goddamn pictures.

















You may rate this x/10 or whatever grading system they may like.

13

Off Topic / Google issues?

« on: December 21, 2012, 10:54:00 PM »

/is probably totally late on this subject or just really uninformed

Google doesn't seem to be working, while the internet is just fine. I can type direct URL's into the search bar, but not generic terms like 'tu tienes cinco elephantes grandes en sus pantalones pequenos' or something. No index/results page shows up.

14

Games / STARPORT: Galactic Empires - "not spewing stuff everywhere like a septic tank"

« on: December 17, 2012, 04:05:29 PM »

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION

THE GAME'S WEBSITE

==========

PICTURES 'N' STUFF

more coming soon, and the top one is a bit outdated

My opinion on this game.

I absolutely adore this game. Through the sub-par graphics (which is really the only problem with it), this is an incredibly fun game to play. It's also pretty old. I played this when I was 12, which made for some not-so-fun consequences at the time, but whatever. In this game, you can do practically whatever you want. It includes randomly-generated galaxies and star systems, different NPCs, vast amounts of trading posts. You can colonize far away planets and build an empire [as the title of the game states] or be a pirate and take over other's colonies, or build trading empires.

All-in-all, this game is awesome, you should get it.

also, it has a pretty small playerbase, and needs more people. It used to have a lot, back in its 'glory days' of ~2006.

did I mention it's free, except for the Admiral's Club which really only gets you flashy stuff, like a starship with stats equal to something easily bought for in-game money.

=UPDATES WILL PROBABLY COME SOON TO THIS TOPIC=

15

General Discussion / TDM Rant [holy stuff right section]

« on: December 12, 2012, 07:49:40 PM »

[rant]

I know all of you are guilty of doing it. You've all played on a TDM that involves these prime characteristics:

- Buying weapons with points gained from killing other players.
- Generic T+T, uneven mixing of different weapon skins, often Frog's mixed with Classical
- Uninspired capture points
- (optional) Trench, not using Xalos's tool-switching 'mod'

These TDMs are becoming far too generic and over-glorified. The potential of this game-style has admittedly petered out. It's being squeezed for every last ounce of enjoyment that can come of it. It contains several flaws, and everyone seems to love them.

I'll start with the buying weapons part. This is an incredible bias that few seem to pick up on. It is a bias against newcomers to the server, as often the buyable weapons are far superior to the stock ones. The firstcomers to the server often get the best weapons first, and there is no sense of 'skill' involved in this gametype whatsoever.

Mixing various T+T skins just makes stuff look like stuff.

Capture points are often bland, uninspired, and in places of not much interest, except the fact there's a capture point there for some reason.

Trench TDMs are overused.

(unrelated) Also, Glass. I'm looking at you for being the most handicapped person on the planet for continuing this loving tradition of stuffty TDMs. Stop it.

[/rant]