Thorfinn

I think it's safe to say they modeled each of those landforms, and decided that was what they wanted the game to be. If I were in charge of developing the landforms, I'd put only one landform into landform.json so it repeats that over the entire world. That way I can see the variations in those Perlin parameters give, without caring about seed or settings (other than uplift, obviously), simply by flying around. Look at the map to see if there's anything that stands out but otherwise, in a few minutes, you have a pretty good idea what that does. That, BTW, is what I would do if I were interested in modding the worldgen, for those interested. [EDIT] Entries like this are why I think they spent some time on these parameters "terrainOctaves": [0, 0.81, 1, 1, 1, 0.6, 0.3, 0.15, 0.1], "terrainOctaveThresholds": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.5, 0, 0, 0], "terrainYKeyPositions": [0.397, 0.415, 0.438, 0.459, 0.548, 0.602, 0.684, 0.711, 0.752], "terrainYKeyThresholds": [1.000, 0.770, 0.517, 0.287, 0.197, 0.117, 0.047, 0.047, 0.000] There's no obvious patterns that I can see at a quick glance. There is a difference of 90, then 80, then 70 un the middle of the last line, but the pattern ends there. They look like they have been tuned to get a specific result.

It just needs to be a real drawback, not a nothingburger like creating a macro to select your waterskin, take a sip, and go back to where you were. In cold weather, you have to stop and light a fire, or go underground, or, paradoxically, chop a hole in the ice and jump in. (I think the latter is probably a result of elevation change, and only works on easier settings, but still...)

Not sure about all of them. Straight-walled should be fine, since the metal contracts as it cools, and pulls away from mold. Ingot molds should be fine, at least if you pretend they have sloped sides like the ingots they produce. Though if shooting for realism, most fired molds should probably require some kind of release agent if you want them reusable. Otherwise, I'd give a percentage chance of having to break it.

Right. I just don't feel really good about rewarding them for mulcting users and developers.

Oh, that works? I wouldn't feel at all scummy about that, since Steam is strong-arming the developers into it. But it probably means I'd have to buy/return it every time some mod updates, yea? I suspect they would catch on before too long. [EDIT] Humble has a launcher, too, sort of. You need to use it to download. GOG does not. Strictly speaking, itch does not either, though, like GOG, they have something that makes it a bit easier. Those three (and probably more) are essentially locked out of modded servers, unless players scam Steam.

Truth. I don't talk much about it except in threads like this, addressing mapgen "deficiencies", because Perlin noise, though absurdly simple, is largely misunderstood. There is a lot of bad information out there about it, but sprinkled in are some very good discussions with explanations of what the parameters mean. Someone asked me about a good one, and I'd have to go back and look, but I provided links to several YouTubes. I think you are right about the advantages of Steam, but IMO, it still doesn't compensate sufficiently for the disadvantages, one of the foremost being their rules for Mod Workshop. (Admittedly, I'm relying on comments from several developers on GOG who explained that they needed to code things so that Steam mods would not run on non-Steam installs, essentially making servers using mods choose between being open to people from all vendors or being Steam only, since only Steam users would have access to Workshop mods. If that one thing were to change, maybe it's worth it. At least on one machine.)

The rest, no problem. But this in particular is death to n00bs. Running away is essential when you have neither weapons, armor or health. If the debuff were something like chopping speed or time involved in collecting sticks or berries or crops, no big deal. This. (I take it you have modding in metal cooking pots?) Make it more difficult for n00bs and no practical effect on skilled players except sucking up an inventory slot? Doesn't seem like a good idea. -=-=-=- While I personally cannot stand hot weather, there needs to be some "easy mode". At present, that is what starting in May does with defaults. At least for maybe 6 months. Usually, if it's winter prep, like slow in getting a garden in, too busy crafting the "perfect" base rather than play a survival game, I just recommend to start in a warmer climate. With this change, what do I recommend?

Another complication with compiling data on worldgen is that if you don't understand how worldgen works, you can't really add much actionable information. Ex: Is this a situation of how one region transitions into another, or is it a region's Perlin generation? If the former, which two regions are not playing together nicely, if the latter, which region is creating the problem? If you play with map, you can probably figure out if it's in inter- or intra-region issue -- the boundaries between regions are fairly obvious once you know what you are looking at. It takes a lot longer to figure out which specific regions are involved. Some are fairly easy -- if it's swampy, or a plateau or islands, you can search the landforms.json and narrow it down to a few possibilities. That would likely be useful information. If you have narrowed it down to the fact you don't like the spires of "needledflatlands", and would prefer them shorter, that would be useful, but ideally resolved by adding a "lessneedledflatlands" that has Perlin noise damped, so that people who like the spires don't lose them. If the problem is that the transition from "Realistic mountains" to "largelake" is too abrupt, that is likely actionable. I doubt anyone would mind that, other than me -- without moveable source blocks, I like building my farm into a lake, and have my mill at the top of a nearby mountain, ideally a plateau that has a lot of buildable space. Smoothing that out would just make me choose between running further between base-lets, or building a mill on the lowlands. But the cool part is that once you narrow down what bothers you, you can just tweak the parameters in landforms.json to your liking, maybe even upload a mod so that others who share your preferences can skip that process. If you don't like the spires at all, just set the weight to 0 or something sufficiently small and Bob's your uncle.

There are a lot that are legit broken, but have you checked them to see? I still have several that have not been updated ever, from when I first started, that still work fine. And lots of others that just needed minor tweaks to take into account the change in block and item names from vanilla. [EDIT] Alchemy is probably not going to happen, as the roadmap changed it from an alchemy system to an herbalism system, but that may not be too far from what you are talking about. I would expect the herbalism to be at least quasi-realistic, though, not magical. For example, stimulants might allow one to get by on less sleep for a while, assuming they can figure out a good way to do sleep in multiplayer settings. But I wouldn't expect invisibility or levitation or climbing or anything like that. [EDIT2] I do expect full-on magical potions in things like Adventure Mode, though.

@Krougal, I watched the trailer for 7D and decided, "Nah." Wouldn't know about the console release but for the guy who runs ProPresenter at church. Haven't played either of the others you name, but understand the point you are making.

True. But each person in that chain made the decision to be a part of that collective. Maybe not at the conscious level, no, but all the same. There are any number of careers where one does not make himself nearly as vulnerable to the whims of foolish people, but not all that many choose them. I've always been using "AI" in a general sense, not specifically ChatGPT or anything else. Continuing your metaphor, is it that far-fetched to thing that some talented programmer will figure out how to make a screwdriver or tack-hammer AI? Sure. So what happens if you don't try to pass it off as your own? If you, from the very start, acknowledge that it was computer generated? Is that still plagiarism? That is an area of the law that is guaranteed to change. In fact, it already has with regards to "your" data. If you put it in a private venue, password protected or whatever, you are right. But data in a public space does not have the same protections. That's been the case in some contexts for decades -- you have no expectation of privacy if you walk around your home naked with the curtains open. Agree, right up until here. Society, to the extent it exists, does so to further the goals of any group, whatever those goals are. Secret societies are a good example. For virtually the whole of human history, it was NOT to benefit everyone. Most of the time, it was for the benefit of warlords, kings and aristocrats. The closest it ever got to "benefit everyone" before the last century or so were isolated circumstances of people doing what would later be called a Pareto Optimal solution. "Best" is inherently subjective. Since your (and my, TBH) standard holds that the little imperfections that make a human product human as "better", we naturally rank human productions more highly. Recording an artist's performance three or four times and blending them together gives a much more realistic song than just running a single track through a choruser. It's the imperfections that make Judy Garland a legend, while Taylor Swift's or Cher's Autotuned performances are mostly meh. What is the moral distinction? Ethical, sure, because we more or less invent ethics to encourage culture to evolve in ways we like, so ethics can be and generally is anything goes, but morality is not subjective. Why would it be immoral to sell chimera fabricated by computers, but not to sell chimera created by humans who had the same inspirational sources?

I still have no idea what vibe code is.

But that's a short-term thing. A phase. If they jump in with both feet, firing all their programmers, and they are wrong, they go broke. It's only if you are wrong that this redounds to their benefit. And either way, it's their money. They can spend it as they like, right? Think of all the business management fads that have taken place over the years, and how many companies have been laid low by falling for the latest one. Creative destruction is a good thing. It weeds out bad ideas.

This is the major reason I assumed "AI" was not up to the task at the moment. Those whose job it is to stay at the cutting edge of programming don't see it as a threat to their jobs, but only to grunt work. While the stereotypically more emotional artists and musicians, who maybe don't have your background and knowledge base, fear that it will replace them.

Nope. No idea what you are talking about. I went back and reviewed the two Hytale threads, and didn't even find your reply, let alone my response to it.

So you only have to do that once for each instance?

I would not call 20 million sales so far "failed". From just 7D2D, I'd think the Hueninks are at or very close to having FU money, so can develop the game they want, rather than chasing the weather vane. I was a little surprised that they decided to re-issue a console version, but read that as an indicator of where they want the game to head.

Weirdly enough, at the outset, I was pretty sure it was not up to the task. And obviously it will be plagiarism if you define that sufficiently broadly. Is a bar band doing a cover "plagiarism"? Used to be that didn't bother anyone. Now if a computer is told to make a cover, even if it does a crappy job, people run around like their hair is on fire. People who should know better, since there's no real risk of AI ever being serious competition... I'll have to go back and reread that thread. Not sure what you are talking about. Give me a hint what I'm looking for. Something about Hytale's art style, I'm guessing?

I guess I'm in good company, then. The kings of Silicon Valley think it's going to be far more capable than that. If you are right, all this bluster about copyright is just that -- this is just a phase, and once it's proven (again) that AI can't do it, and never could, we'll all have a good laugh at ourselves for being so silly. "Abusive" is exactly the right word. Employees who had been there since the beginning of the company were coming into my office talking about how hostile the workplace had become since a few of the newer hires. I watched the dynamics, and, sure as heck, they were causing problems. This was before all the pronouns and stuff. Can't really imagine how bad that got. But you are right. That's not happening here. Not sure where you got the impression I said it was...?

True, but IMO, a very minor part. Early RPGs used classes to encourage cooperation. Modern RPGs do it to emphasize differences, to let each player be special. For example, the only reason to ever play a kender is if you want to annoy the other players. Tieflings if you wanted to play up the fiendish aspects, usually with the same effect.

Right now it doesn't, no. AI works through imitation. At some point in the future, I'm confident that if it sees enough examples of what tiling is, it will be able to do it. It wasn't for using "correct" terminology. It was for being abusive to co-workers who didn't use the "correct" terminology.

Oh, I never log out. Didn't even know it was an option.

Huh. I could have sworn they were not working sometime late winter, January or February, for a while. No one was able to get authorized, and it gave some loopy error, while we could all connect to other similar things like GOG Galaxy and Steam. Maybe they were just being slammed from all the new users? Dunno. But I know I have valid keys, and a solid internet, and was not able to get authenticated. A couple days later, everything was back to normal.

Care to prove that? It is only in the special case of treating mathematics as something other than a model that you can get there. Granted, it's been a wildly successful model, but there's no way to prove the model is correct at infinity. But that's completely irrelevant to the point I was making, which , from context was iobviously the world of VS, and that, unlike charcoal, there is currently no "sustainable" source of iron, it is finite.

Oh, that's what you meant. I thought you were talking about when you bounce between versions and/or computers with the same ID. Yes, I'm pretty sure you need that first token. Though I don't see that as unreasonable. Otherwise there wouldn't be much to stop one from handing out a bajillion copies of the game, and development funds drops precipitously. At least this way, there is at least some hope that pirates are at some risk of there being something malignant in the cracked versions they find. I suppose you could change the model to some microtransaction scheme, though that would chase me and I'm sure a lot of other people away. I don't mind logging in again. I'm getting pretty fast at it. But I would not link a credit card to a game, ever.