Hi guys,

I thought I'd pitch this to Taco over steam, but I might as well do it here.

What's the coolest thing about Minecraft? If you answered with anything other than some variation of "exploring someone else's server that's been running for ages and finding lots of ruins and hidden things", then you can stop having your government subsidised retard wrangler read this to you here.

There used to be a minecraft thing where you'd make a single-player game, play for a while, then pass the save file off to someone else. Over a few cycles of this, you'd get this cool world full of awesome shit. That was something Minecraft tried to do by default, but didn't quite get right. Rimworld has a similar attempt at generating ruins, but they're just shit-boring rectangles of stone and floor.

So, what if one of us started a save file. Everything randomised. Once a disaster occurs, and the colony falls into death and ruin, we pass it off to the next guy. Using the dev mode, we can instantly spawn in a random wandering pawn (or three), and start over. This time, though, there's already a bit of infrastructure lingering from a colony long since gone. Eventually, (or more likely, after the only other participant's turn), after enough time, the save will come back to you, and you can see the result of many colonies building on top of each other.

I don't see why we couldn't eventually beat the game in this mode.

Anyone want in?

Get excited

Dir en Grey's 10th album: The Insulated World


Get excited

Hey check out my Rimworld base:

I saw Jargonion do something similar to this the other day so I went ahead and stole his idea.



I've walled off an area so I could farm it relatively safely, and tunneled into a cave.



I was doing great with 4 people for quite a while, but hubris got the better of me so now they're eating faster than I'm producing. Hoping the season will grow me enough food to tide me through but who knows.

Apart from that, collecting wood is a bit of an issue, studying tree growing to keep trees nearby.

You may have noticed I blocked off my wood-fired generator from easy access my wood store with a battery. I just noticed now haha

I have a pet rat. I don't know if it has any value.

HOLY SHIT THE FIRST GAMEPLAY TRAILER FOR SPELUNKY 2 HIT

THATS IT. EVERYONE GO HOME. THIS IS AS GOOD AS ITS GONNA GET NOW. FORUM CANT TOP THIS. WE DONE HERE


just watch it CHRIST:




What we can take from this:

• There are fucking mounts. Thats right, MOUNTS. YOU CAN RIDE A TURKEY, A DOG, A DINOSAUR?
  
• This game is set on some sort of planet? Olmec home planet????
  
• ghosts can freeze shop keepers?
  
• The bow is back from the orginal version. and you can use it on the terrain
  
• LAVA AND WATER FLOWS BOY. WE GOT PHYSICS NOW.
  
• The way it introduces the characters its almost implying they have their own abilities. Just looks like items already in the game though to me
  
• ONLINE COOP HOLY SHIT-A-BRICK
  
• LEVELS HAVE MULTIPLE 'LAYERS' YOU CAN TRAVEL BETWEEN
  
• I SAW 2 GHOSTS. TWO. GHOSTS.
  
• A GUN THAT FIRES CATS
  
• RANDOM GEN LEVELS
  

Derek Yu Wrote:PlayStation.Blog: So, first things first: What is Spelunky 2?
Derek Yu: Spelunky 2 is the sequel to the roguelike platformer Spelunky and takes place after the events of the original game. Since Spelunky 1 was released a lot of great roguelike-inspired games have come out and pushed the genre in cool new directions, but I think Spelunky is still very unique in terms of the freedom it offers the player and the way different elements interact, where one event can trigger a cascade of consequences that have to be dealt with. That’s something we’ve been building on – not just adding lots of new things (which we’re doing!), but also making the world feel even more interconnected. And that includes storytelling (both developer-created and player-created) as well as game mechanics.
PSB: I understand this game is very, very different from Spelunky 1 – why? What guided that decision? Why not be safe and just do another like he already did?
“The big question on my mind was ‘What makes Spelunky, Spelunky?'”
DY: At its core, Spelunky 2 is not too different, actually. My opinion about sequels is that they are extensions of the previous games, so I want fans of Spelunky 1 to jump in and feel like they’re playing a continuation, both storywise and mechanically. The big question on my mind was “What makes Spelunky, Spelunky?” I wanted to figure out what those ideas were and take them to their limit without anything getting in their way. Sometimes that means adding, sometimes that means remixing – it can also mean subverting expectations created by the original game.


PSB: What will Spelunky fans “get” about the game right away? What’s similar? What’s different?
DY: I think they’ll immediately get into the flow of playing the game. Which is great, because with Spelunky 1 we had a hard time explaining that to people. Now that they get it, we can spend more time making the experience deeper and richer. There are a lot of differences that, when added up, really make the game feel different. For example, each level will have a second layer that you can go back and forth between. Sometimes the entrance is right there and sometimes it’s a hidden shortcut. Even though the gameplay is still 2D platforming, this adds a feeling of a third dimension to the exploration.
“Each level will have a second layer that you can go back and forth between.”
We’ve also added liquid physics that are really fun to play with – combined with the destructible terrain you get things like dynamic water or lavafalls that you have to deal with on each run. The world breathes more. And then there’s all the expected new areas, items, monsters, and traps. It really is a lot.
I’m still very much thinking about new players, though. But my philosophy has always been to attract new players by making the world more interesting and inviting instead of focusing on tutorials and things like that. Spelunky is still Spelunky and it will be very challenging – my hope is that new players will want to persevere because we made the effort worth it. Spelunky 2 will have very strong themes of family and friendship and I want new players to feel cared for even as we put tough obstacles in their way.

PSB: Are the levels randomized? That’s super hard to do; what was the approach?
DY: The approach is the same as with Spelunky 1 where we generate a “safe” path to the exit using room templates. However, with new features like the second layer we’re finding lots of surprising new ways we can make random level design even more interesting. As I said before, it feels like there’s a new dimension to it. And BlitWorks is doing the programming on Spelunky 2 and has built tools for creating and testing levels that we didn’t have the resources to build the first time around. It’s been a lot of fun going back “into the lab” with our previous experience and a lot of new technology.
“The goal is not extending the game’s length but making the stories that emerge even more rich and personal.”
PSB: How is the flow/pace? How does that change when moving to this new gameplay style?
DY: To me it feels more fast-paced but also more expansive. I imagine that runs may take a little bit longer beginning to end, but the main goal is not extending the game’s length but making the stories that emerge even more rich and personal.
PSB: Is it safe to assume there will be lots of secrets?
DY: Oh, of course!

Somebody help me

The Da Vinci Code is the highest selling English language novel written in the last 50 years, if you exclude Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone. What makes The Da Vinci Code such a great sale? Accessibility? Controversy? Fast paced action? The dreamy heartthrob protagonists Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu?
It’s probably mostly the controversial conspiracy theory of the book that really got it so much attention, and as much as people like to slam it, there are a bunch of cool riddles and twists, and the pace of the book makes it a pretty great read.

So, I decided to try decipher the format of the book, and write my own detective thriller story.
That’s right, I’m going to crack the The Da Vinci Code code.
(Everything I have done is mired in caveats, premature rounding and general sloppiness, brace yourself)


I decided not to included flashback scenes in any of the stats I collected because they were annoying. This is why Saunière only has one appearance (the prologue).

I counted 18 real characters in the book. There are maybe 2 named characters who are not included on this list because they only had one appearance and were not significant in the plot. There were also various (mostly police and catholic clergy) unnamed characters who aren’t worth mentioning either.
For each character, I figured out how many chapters they appeared in and which character archetype best described the character based on this website.
Although Robert Langdon was a mentor to Sophie Neveu, and Sophie was a hero in her own right, I just chose one primary archetype per character to keep it simple.
I also counted 18 “scenes”, one being “travelling somewhere” and another being “other”: all the scenes that only existed for a single chapter and weren’t really important to the story.
Instead of counting actual chapters here, I split chapters that occurred in multiple scenes. 13 chapters occurred in 2 different locations, 1 chapter occurred across 3 locations. In 16 “chapters” there was a telephone conversation.



I categorised the locations into 8 types of location (including “travel” and “others”).
I also recorded events that occurred, grouped into 14 messy, unsatisfying categories:



AND SO, HERE’S MY FORMULA FOR A GREAT DETECTIVE THRILLER

Anyone keen?

This article on The Spinoff gives us two commercial toasties recipes used by cafes in Auckland and Wellington.

Interestingly, they both use pickles in their toastie recipes
also interestingly, they both use the exact same brand of pickle
and suspiciously, they use the exact same flavour of this brand of pickle


what is it about these pickles that make them so suitable for good cheese sandwiches?

But also, who the fuck puts pickles in their toasties anyway? Everytime I do they get far too hot and burn off the roof of my mouth. Is this standard practice?

Where does "sweet and spicy" get off as being the best pairing for cheese?
At first I went to their site to get answers and found you could buy four jars of pickles for $40, or 12 jars for $99. I guess they primarily target commercial suppliers and real pickle enthusiasts? But then I found out they are also sold at other places so I think in time I will go find some and inspect the labels and the flavours carefully.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
Do you put pickles in your cheese sandwiches? Do some pickle flavours clearly lend themselves to the flavour of cheese? Does this shadowy pickle distributor make you feel suspicious, uneasy? Have you ever ordered a cheese toasty at a cafe??

Aight who is it?



Who's birthday is it, and why did you hide it from us?

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

Don't make me use my admin powers to TRACK YOU DOWN AND FIND OUT


I WILL MAKE YOU A CAKE

But what colour is Top Dog? Current the colour is FLAME

Cast your votes bois

Geoff Simmonds Wrote:The Opportunities Party (TOP) is alive and kicking, and I want to thank you for the part you've played in that.

Now it’s time for us all to step up.

I will be taking over as Interim Leader. The other Board members are Timaru’s Olly Wilson and Wellington’s Paddy Plunket.