2024

25 March, 2024. 902 words.

Dispatches from @ultrviolet@gts.endgameviable.com:

Monday 03/18

09:07 # DALL-E is cool and all, but it really sucks at making things you can use to make other things. It has no clue what to do with things like “and make the background transparent or a green screen so I can change it later” and “make the face blank so I can change the expression later.”
12:33 # It’s been almost two years now and I’m still getting comments on my Elden Ring input delay video that are either “you made this up lulz” or “omg this is definitely real” or some variation which is a long wall of text because people on the Internet like to explain things to strangers.
17:35 # I have to admit I’m a little bit confused how anyone in Microsoft corporate HQ could think I would want my Surface Go tablet to have the same desktop icons as my gaming PC. My goal was to do a full full wipe and reset of this tablet to get it back to a blank state so it would run faster, which was somehow interpreted as “oh I guess he wants us to copy everything from his desktop Windows environment to this incredibly slow tablet!”
22:13 # And after a short session tonight, I TPKed myself in what should have been an easy encounter. Whoopsie.

12:22 # My interest in Lords of the Fallen has entirely evaporated into nothing, as I’m far more interested in finding out what’s going to happen to my simulated players in my simulated Phandelver and Below D&D game. One of them died after a natural 1 on a death saving throw, and the other two fell unconscious after freak goblin attack rolls, but I think I can work out a deus ex machina to introduce two new characters to rescue them and keep the story going a little bit longer. Sadly there are no revivify scrolls or stacks of healing potions on every character like there are in Baldur’s Gate 3.

08:44 # I’m trying to decide if I need to do another pass on my tabletop experiment videos to do an extreme cut on the amount of time spent in combat. The decision hinges on whether these videos are supposed to be an archive of my experiments or an entertaining product for a viewer who isn’t into ttrpgs. If the latter, you’d probably want to cut 90% of the ttrpg combat experience from a video. But I think I’m going to leave it as is, and not just because that would be several more hours in the video editor. I think these videos are meant to be more of a realistic portrayal of “what it’s really like” and a reminder of all the things I can do better in the future.
16:59 # It’s a good day when you successfully put the coffee down on a table before sneezing.

08:48 # I got a really nice email from someone saying they liked my YouTube videos but my level of jadedness in the Internet is at such a high level that I fully believe it’s some kind of scam. But on the off chance it’s not, thanks! That was really touching that someone took the time to write an email.

12:41 # I wonder if all the D&D Actual Play shows and podcasts that do live shows are in the same boat with musicians. Meaning that musicians can write and record great songs and be popular on Spotify all day long but they have no choice but to do live shows and sell merch to actually make any money. The art itself is valueless to a consumer these days, the only value left is the potential to sell tickets to see the artist.
14:39 # I was experimenting with NDI this morning, trying to broadcast my MacBook Pro screen to a Windows PC so I could record it in OBS. It worked. For what it’s worth. It’s always a shock when I see the name “NewTek” in a modern context. That’s a name from the past, from the heady days of Amigas and Video Toasters, when everyone thought they could break into Hollywood special effects from their living rooms.

09:32 # I love the treasure in these D&D adventure books. You spend hours and hours fighting through the goblin caves, and you get … 150 silver pieces! You face down a manticore and finally kill it after god knows how many rounds of tense combat… here, have a single healing potion! Definitely a “journey is the reward” kind of game hehe.

21:41 # I was looking for some Phandelver actual play shows, to see how level 1 characters could possibly survive this goblin cave, and I find myself in a sea of mid-tier actual play shows. They’re all like superfans of the top-tier actual play shows and they all keep saying the same catch phrases from the big shows over and over again. They’re not bad exactly, they’re just super average. Lots of room echo in the sound, the maps are kind of janky, overly aggressive theatrics in the role-playing, etc. etc. Also tons and tons of ads and selling merch heh. There’s this one I’m watching that has a heavy midwestern basement church group vibe, which is a weird vibe for a D&D group.