SmoothOperator

@SmoothOperator@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We have just released a grand DLC, War Sails, for our game, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Congrats!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jeopardy wall calendar pretending that the coastline paradox doesn't exist⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Why does area get to be especially fun and definite while length, its one-dimension-away sibling doesn’t?

  Excellent question, and as you yourself allude to, it’s a question of bounds. If you can establish and upper and lower bound on a quantity and make them approach eachother, you can measure it.

  On a finite 2d surface you can make absolute lower and upper bounds on any area - lower is zero, upper is the full surface. All areas are measurable. But on the same surface you can make a line infinitely squiggly and detailed, essentially drawing a fractal. So the upper bound on the length of a line is infinite. Which means not all lines have a measurably length.

  This extends naturally to higher dimensions - in a finite 3d space, volumes must be finite, but both lines and areas can be fractally complex and infinite. And so on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jeopardy wall calendar pretending that the coastline paradox doesn't exist⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  But isn’t the issue that coastlines have a fractal nature? That depending on your resolution, you could have a finite or infinite length of a coastline? In which case measurement is hard to define.

  Talking about integrals, the fun part is that even with a coastline of indeterminate length, the area of a continent is easy to define to arbitrary precision - you can just define an integral that’s definitely inside the area and one that’s definitely outside the area, and the answer is between those two.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jeopardy wall calendar pretending that the coastline paradox doesn't exist⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure, the length of the intervals is easily compared. But saying

  there are twice as many elements in the total than there are in half the range

  is false. This difference is the whole crux of the coastline problem, isn’t it?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Jeopardy wall calendar pretending that the coastline paradox doesn't exist⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t it a bit like saying “there’s obviously more real numbers between 0 and 2 than between 0 and 1”? Which, to my knowledge, is a false statement.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  To me it feels more about consistency. The world aligns with your expressed ideology.

  If you’re using the sneaking and non-lethal tools the world becomes a place that believes in the value of life, if you murder indiscriminately the world becomes a place of punishment, where nobody is innocent and the only way forward is to let a plague descend on the land.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting, I’ve never considered choices and gameplay as separate things. Isn’t it more, I don’t know, immersive if gameplay and story are unified?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Years later, Arkane’s Dishonored is still a modern stealth classic⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Non-lethal also means avoidance rather than conflict. But ultimately, “bad ending” is subjective. You still save the princess, it’s just a more murdery vibe.

  Also you get to kill the baddies yourself, it’s the good ending where most are killed for you right?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Unified⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I guess that’s the joke - this is so stupid and obviously won’t work, but that perspective is subverted when it turns out to actually work, causing humour.

  I quite like it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a good source to read about thought experiments?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also double slit experiment is not so much a thought experiment as it’s an experimental phenomenon that is hard to explain. Also Einsteins thought experiments are actual science, based on reality with actual results…

  The double slit experiment was first invented as a thought experiment, and later was built as an actual experiment. It’s the same with relativity, first it was thought up, now it’s experimentally verified. So the examples from relativity you bring up are also more experimental phenomena than a thought experiments at this point.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a good source to read about thought experiments?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have, I studied these ideas at university. I’m just curious what makes these thought experiments harder than e.g. the double slit experiment, Plato’s cave analogy or Rawls’ veil of ignorance?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a good source to read about thought experiments?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What makes relativity the hardest thought experiment?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you meditate?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Cool! What’s your take on the empirical method then, considering the relationship between reality and the subject?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you meditate?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, it’s pretty important to me for mental hygiene and self-control.

  But what do you mean it’s “a bigger deal than science”? Do you do science as well?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨👁️🐽👁️⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wait till you hear about how fecal transplants can make you braver

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  mmmmm, no, very unwise

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OKBuddyGalaxyBrain⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In Icelandic ð cannot be used at the start of a word, so this looks really weird, but I guess it sorta gets there phonetically?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If this seems exaggerated to you then you haven't worked in IT long enough⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why does AI use this beige background color?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alley cat lunch⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Crumbly? Flaky? That doesn’t sound like a Danish pickled herring… They’re smooth and fatty, with a light acid.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alley cat lunch⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Danish pickled herring is amazing though… You really think Dutch salted herring beats it?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Is RNG always bullshit?

  Do you feel like that’s the case in Blue Prince?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No, that sounds like a terrible game. How exactly is this relevant?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well… A puzzle is a challenge. In Blue Prince, part of the challenge is that you need to engage with the clues you have available, not necessarily the clues you hoped for. Removing that challenge is to remove part of the puzzle.

  You’re fully within your right to say that’s not your cup of tea, but I think it does contribute something meaningful to the puzzling.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  While there is one main goal in front of you, all the shit they pile in front of you is more mystery, the solution of which will carry you closer to your goal.

  It’s more like if Obra Dinn randomly had you play an Outer Wilds loop or Chants of Sennaar segment, with all the mysteries tying together.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for the long reply! To me, there is another element that RNG can add: the challenge of adapting. Think of x-com: you’re immediately told the odds that a shot will succeed, and have to decide whether to take that shot based on that chance and the consequences of it failing.

  You know that on average things will work out fairly, but you have to be ready to push the successes without letting failure trip you up.

  During most of the game, Blue Prince poses many different puzzles and riddles to you in parallel. If you focus on one thing you’ve had a eureka moment about, you’ll be frustrated with the lack of control, but if you approach the situation holistically, and pursue all puzzles at the same time based on what is available, it’s a very different experience. Your thought processes and realizations are shaped by the randomness of the day.

  Furthermore there’s always an interesting strategy element of mitigating the chance by ensuring lots of redraws in different ways, upgrading rooms to serve several purposes, piling up resources between runs etc.

  I do think it’s novel and interesting, though not necessarily the best idea in the world. To properly do the holistic approach I mention you need a massive infrastructure of photos and notes to keep track of all the clues you’re pursuing. I wish it had some kind of overview of found documents and clues, though I can see how that’s not so simple to implement for this game in particular.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blue Prince - Have you played it? How blown is your mind?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you feel the same about other games that involve random chance, such as roguelikes and RPGs?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨this is my hole!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Enigma of Amigara Fault

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I made this instead⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, nothing increases it, but aren’t there contexts where it is unchanged? Vacuum and single isolated particles don’t increase entropy I suppose.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I made this instead⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Local entropy, that is. At a global scale, life increases entropy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I made this instead⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Thank god for fridges