cobysev

I used to see you everywhere. Then I got the "Voyager for Lemmy" app. Now I rarely ever notice you.

Voyager doesn't do custom username fonts or icons, so everyone's username is just plaintext. You blend in with every other user in my feed, and I rarely look at usernames, so I tend to miss users that I haven't specifically tagged myself.

I'm pretty glad to not see my name popping up in any of these comments, ha.

Same here. At one point, I tried to be known for providing a certain type of content here, to help fill out a then-quiet community. But I'm kind of glad no one really recognizes me until they see a post by me. I'm here daily, but I mostly lurk, so I don't particularly want to wake up to hundreds of comments in my inbox every day.

And yes, I'm still trying to provide that content despite my apparent hiatus. I'm just dealing with seasonal depression (as well as all the national news drama going on in my home state 20+ minutes from my home), so it's hard to get motivated to be creative lately.

Replace Digg with Imgur and you have my progression over the years.

I'd heard of Digg, but never really took notice of it until it suddenly collapsed. Now a former Reddit cofounder and a former Digg founder are revitalizing Digg? No thanks. I'll continue to avoid that site.

For me personally, video games are interactive stories. I want a good plot, engaging characters and setting, and to be able to experience it through a protagonist whose actions I control. I want to feel like I'm living in this world, making the decisions the hero would choose.

When I'm dumped into a game world where the objective is "run around and have fun!," I don't really know what to do. I don't understand where I am or what's going on. And the process of discovering the plot can be long and arduous, which just takes me out of the game. Especially if there are complex mechanics like skill trees or gear leveling, etc. I don't want to grind in a game just to advance, give me a better flow to the story and progression!

I haven't had any problems, except for fighting that Goliath alien. I managed to take one down solo, but only by jumping across a chasm and then taking pot shots at him while he stared at me from the other side. I could not get clean shots off at him while running away. I actually killed him by throwing a grenade behind him, and when he turned around to shield from the blast, I shot him in his soft unprotected backside until he collapsed.

I personally have yet to die in the game, but two of my friends who joined me just ran off without any introduction to the game and proceeded to get themselves killed over and over again. So if you pay attention to the training at the beginning, it shouldn't be too difficult.

The farther you wander from your starting area, the more difficult the aliens get. So stay closer to home until you've leveled up your weapons and base defenses and you'll be fine, even solo. Of the 7 bases I currently have set up, only one has been attacked by aliens so far, and they were easy to clean up by myself.

As far as factory automation, it can sometimes be a chore as a single player, but it's not too hard. As long as you have the patience to plot out resource production lines, it's not too bad. The hardest thing right now is that there's no transportation between bases besides walking there yourself, so it can be time-consuming going back and forth to check on various bases. Especially since most of the resource nodes are scattered. And you can't just build anywhere like Satisfactory, so you need to drop Base Cores here and there so you can run rails between bases for resources.

I still don't know how large the game's map is, but what I've uncovered so far is massive. It takes me maybe 10 minutes to walk across my currently-explored area, and there's still a lot of black undiscovered areas on my map in all directions!

They not only screwed up their continent borders, but they forgot the continent of Antarctica. There are tons of researchers who spend months (maybe years?) living there while working. It's extremely low, but there's a non-zero chance someone could be born there.

I bought a micro PC and use that to stream Plex and other Internet media directly to my TV. I don't connect the TV itself to the Internet and I don't have cable or public access TV. I can block all ads with my micro PC and home network.

You're probably the only person in the world who now views Brazil as a kind of Christmas movie

Brazil pops up in my Plex feed under the "Christmas" category. I just recently added it to my Plex library, but I still haven't seen it. I guess I need to watch it today.

■■■ Proton ■■■■■■■ donated ■■■■ to ■■■■ Trump.

Did they? I know one of their CEOs was pro-Trump, but the organization as a whole spoke out against having any political affiliation. Do you have a source for their donation to Trump?

Hank Hill is a die-hard Republican, fiercely loyal to his grifter of a boss at the propane store. Of course he's going to advocate for the bland, simple taste of meat cooked by propane. He's not adventurous and he definitely wouldn't betray his brand.

Critics claim the phrase is dismissive of nonreligious service members.

Very true. I was an atheist serving in Iraq during one of the most dangerous times to be there, minus the initial surge into the country. Our base was mortared at least once a week. Over 150 civilians died in a bus bombing the week I showed up. We were working and living in hardened bunkers most of the time. I almost got blown up once, only surviving because I stepped outside to grab a tool. The three members who were inside the small building I was working in weren't so lucky.

I never appealed to a higher power while there. If anything, the devastation and violence I witnessed further convinced me there couldn't be a higher power in control of all this.

"I'm sorry for being a positive influence to you but I'm not sure if you're going to have a good day today."

Every career I was interested in as a child tied into interests and hobbies of mine. I read thousands of books throughout my childhood, so I wanted to become an author. I loved drawing, so I considered becoming an illustrator. I had been singing in choirs since the 3rd grade (and singing at home while my mother practiced piano before that), so I started studying music theory and composition.

During my teen years in the late '90s, the Internet took off and computer technology became all the rage. A family friend who had just graduated high school decided to forego college because he could get an immediate $75K job as an IT technician. A few years later, he was offered a $300K job from another company, because proficient computer technicians were desperately needed in every business and very few people really understood the technology back then.

I was fascinated with the technology and its future applications and started studying computers myself. I read A+ certification books, tore apart and reassembled the family PC, watched training VHS tapes on how to do administrative functions within the Windows OS, etc. I even dabbled in a bit of programming (C++, BASIC, etc.)

Then came my senior year of high school. Nobody had ever spoken to me about college. I had no idea what college was, except that it was the next school after high school. I assumed I'd just pick a college and start attending; I didn't know there was an application process, I didn't know that you had to pick a degree to major in, I didn't know you had to pay for it yourself. Whomever was supposed to educate me about college completely missed me. My parents expected school to guide me, and my school expected parents to guide their own children.

So here I was, my last year of high school, and I had done absolutely zero research into colleges. But then my family went to visit an uncle of mine whom I hadn't seen since I was a kid and he became really interested in my future career plans. When I told him I still didn't have a plan, he suggested the US Air Force. Turns out, he served for 30 years and loved every minute of it. They forced him to retire at 30 years, otherwise he would've stayed even longer.

He told me about all the incredible benefits; how you get free college education during your career training, free food, free housing, free medical and dental, free travel all over the world... and they pay you to do it all! Plus, you could retire as soon as 20 years into the service and collect a pension and benefits for life. It sounded too good to be true.

So as soon as I went home, my mother and I went to talk to a recruiter and I signed up. During the application process, I requested an IT job, which they said was a highly requested field at the time, due to the future career benefits when people leave the service.

I ended up spending 20 years serving as an IT administrator, traveling all over the globe and having many adventures and cultural experiences. Made friends all over the world and learned so much about our planet and the wonderful people who inhabit it. It really opened my eyes to the world. American politics seemed so small once I had lived abroad for a few years.

I qualified for retirement in 2022, being grandfathered into the military's old pension program that they had replaced in 2015 with a 401k-type program. I retired at only 38 years old. And I had gotten banged up enough during my service that I qualified for 100% disability through the VA, which gave me lifetime free medical and dental care, along with a monthly medical paycheck twice as big as my pension. With all that combined, I didn't really need to work anymore, so now I'm enjoying the quiet retired life, living in my former childhood home out in the countryside.

I'm glad I left the service when I did. I was still there for the first Trump presidency and it was a dark time for us. Things turned around during Biden's term and I retired then. Since Trump came back though, the military has changed a lot, and not for the best. I'm glad I served when I did, but I absolutely wouldn't serve now. Not with a fascist Commander in Chief running the show and installing his unqualified puppets in key leadership positions. Fuck that. I'd probably end up in jail before my service ended.

Now that I'm out, I could easily use my IT experience and knowledge to find another job and double my income, but I feel much happier not being tied to a job. The military was a bit intense, taking priority over my personal life for 20 years. And you can't just quit. You sign up for 4-6 years of service at a time and you're stuck in that contract until it ends. The easiest way to get out of it is to break the law and go to jail, which is not ideal, so you just have to put up with being in the military until your contract expires. And there were definitely days I wished I could quit.

It's nice to be able to set my own schedule now. I sleep when I want to, take up whatever projects or hobbies I want, and basically plan my days for myself. I don't really want to be tied to another career for another 20+ years, so as long as I'm making enough passive income to survive on my own comfortably, I'm just gonna stay retired.

I considered that, but I apparently have a really lumpy, scrotum-looking scalp. I do NOT look good bald. So... I gotta put up with what's left of my hair as long as I can.

The only reason my hairstyle has changed over the years is because of thinning hair.

I used to have such thick, soft hair, people would joke that I was actually growing fur. Everyone loved to scruff my hair and I got compliments all the time.

But now I'm in my 40s and the family balding curse has caught up with me. My hairline is receding, a bald spot is starting to show, and I needed to change up my style to avoid looking 20+ years older than I actually am. Eventually, I'll just give up and let it do its own thing, but I need to experience my midlife crisis first. 😉

I retired from the US military 3 years ago and I'm glad I left when I did. I absolutely wouldn't put up with this BS if I was still serving, as well as every other BS order that drunken frat boy Nazi gives. One Trump regime was enough.

That said, is this letter legit? The letterhead looks real enough, but there's no printed signature block at the bottom, just his signature. Have military documents changed format in only a few years since I left? Signature blocks are always required. The military is very strict on their protocols, so I'm surprised it's omitted.

There's a pretty big difference between criticizing and harassing.

My introduction to Tim Curry was when he played Rooster in Annie waaay back in 1982.

It's always been wonderful to see him pop up in movies and shows (and video games) over the years, even if he's just doing voice acting. I know it took him a while after his stroke to be able to talk normally again (he was slow and slurred in his speech for a while), but I'm surprised he hasn't done more voice work since 2012.

I've never used Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. I'm trying to get away from Facebook currently. I've successfully dumped Twitter, which I hardly used anyway. I only use YouTube because I can still block all ads, but if they ever force ads into my videos, I'll drop it in an instant.

I've never cared for social media except as a way to stay in touch with friends and family, and maybe a way to meet new friends. But modern social media is just garbage content pumped into your feed constantly for clicks and reacts.

The only reason I haven't let go of Facebook is because almost everyone I know is still there. If I dump it, I lose contact with 90% of my social group. I don't really use Facebook anymore though, except to contact people.

EDIT: On a related note, I don't believe children should have electronic devices. Maybe around 10 years old, they should be allowed to carry a locked down phone or something, so their parents can reach them, but they can't browse the Internet or send photos to people, etc.

It was around 2010 or so when I first saw a friend hand their iPad to their 1-yr old to keep them distracted. That was a $600 device! Which was a lot of money for a personal electronic device back then.

As an IT professional who had to fix electronic devices all the time, I mentioned to my friend that a child probably shouldn't have unsupervised access to an iPad, and they told me that's why it has a thick padded case; a lesson they learned when their first iPad got cracked by the child. So the baby broke a $600 iPad and they bought another and handed it back to the kid?! Sheesh...

I always attempt to play a game the way the developers intended the first time through. If I decide to give it another playthrough and I don't want to put up with the extra grindy parts of the game, I'll look for legitimate cheats to help me fast-forward through the rough parts.

I mean "legitimate" as in, cheats the developers put in the game, not outside hacks or mods that alter the game itself. I'm not big on mods in general, and I don't usually use cheats, but I will in rare situations.

Back in the day, Warcraft III had cheats that let you power through each level with stuff like infinite resources, invulnerability, or just letting you automatically complete a level. I used those on recurring playthroughs because each level could easily take 30 mins to an hour to beat, and it was very grindy.

In Satisfactory, there's a cheat where you can add a single stack of a resource into the back of a factory cart, then deconstruct the cart. You'll get all the resources of the factory cart in your inventory, plus double the resource you put into the cart.

Do this dozens of times and you can exponentially grow resources without having to wait on factories to make them. I'm pretty sure the developers are aware of this "glitch" because it's never been patched out, even after a bunch of people started pointing it out on official Satisfactory forums.

I played hundreds of hours of the game and made some pretty massive continent-stretching factories. Upon building a new world, I started to implement this "strategy" to hurry up and acquire rare resources so I could get factories off the ground. Saved me from hundreds of hours of gameplay, waiting on production lines to make basic resources into more advanced resources so I could get to the next step.

A buddy of mine asked to be part of my Steam Family so he could have access to my 4,000+ game library. He regularly streams games online and figured it'd save him tons of money buying games to play.

But he's also completed all achievements on almost every game he's played on console and uses some website to automatically complete all the achievements for his Steam games, so he doesn't need to redo them on PC.

The thing about Steam Family is... if someone's caught cheating and earns a vac ban, the owner of the family account receives the ban, not the individual player. I told him I was worried that cheating of any kind might affect my immaculate record and/or library of games and he decided to just buy his own games instead of risking my account. Good friend; he didn't even argue. I was still willing to let him have access as long as he was careful, but he chose another route.

cobysev

@ cobysev @lemmy.world

Posts

18
Comments

480
Joined

3 yr. ago

cobysev

Permanently Deleted

Permanently Deleted

Me, a Lemmy instance admin, looking at the new Digg

[Discussion] Do you prefer more direct storytelling in your soulslikes or obscure, indirect ways of storytelling?

Random Screenshots of my Games #66 - StarRupture

Chance of Being Born in Each Continent in 2026

something I'm confronted with too, visiting family

What was the best Christmas you've ever had?

Trust Us, Bro.

That boy is all right

There are no atheists in foxholes

Arent we all

how did you choose your career?

Permanently Deleted

Permanently Deleted

"I expect every member of the Department to log in, learn it, and incorporate it into your workflows immediately. Al should be in your battle rhythm every single day" says Pete Hegseth

The cabal

TIL that actor Tim Curry is on a wheelchair since 2012

What's your boomer trait?

Do you cheat in video games?