site banner
PaperclipPerfector  15hr ago (text post)   605 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Video Game Thread

What are you playing? Are you having fun or just killing time?

This week I was able to sink quite a few hours into Deus Ex. I'm going to use spoiler tags because there's always someone who has not yet played the game but might want to do so.

I let Lebedev live. I used the LAM trick to kill Anna Navarre when she came for Lebedev, and now I've got an angry mech (Gunther) on my ass.

During the 'Paul's apartment' sequence I managed to electric prod stun one of the Men in Black mechs, to keep him from exploding along with his loot. Picked up the auto-shotgun and applied a couple of recoil mods to it. I let Paul do most of the killing because he seemed invulnerable, while I, being stealth based and playing on Hard difficulty, can only survive a couple of hits to the chest/head.

I surrendered to the arrest squad and let Daedalus get me out of my cell and onwards to the Armory. Most of my grenades were not kept. I think I had 7 LAMs when I was arrested and only recovered 1 or 2 in the Armory. Oh well. My weapons with their mods were intact. I'm still carrying the GEP gun from the start of Liberty Island, because it's so useful against bots (and cameras, in some situations).

Despite having played almost exclusively non-lethal up to this point, I ended up wiping out most of the MJ12 guards and doctors, because, hey, they know what they're doing is wrong. I let the Mechanic who sells you stuff live though, he seemed alright. While it would have been fun to receive the killphrase for Gunther in Paris from doctor Jaime, I elected to tell him to join me in Hong Kong for roleplaying purposes; gotta keep my bros with me. He was relieved.

Manderley got a rocket straight to the face. Walton Simmons, in the hologram, was unmoved by my lethal prejudice.

I'm now in Hong Kong and have picked up the Dragon's Tooth almost immediately, because I found my way to Maggie Chow's apartment, and then went collecting evidence from the police station, and returned to Maggie's place to find her gone and MJ12 guards swarming out of hidden doors. Turns out Miss Chow is a nasty piece of work. I'll hopefully get to chop her into pieces with the Dragon's Tooth at some point.

Something that's always pissed me off to no end in the Deus Ex games is the energy management running on consumable power cells. I suffer from a bad case of videogame hoarding disorder, and I've beaten most of them without ever using any of the damn things, at significant cost to my sanity.

Its 20XX, just stick your dick in a convenient power socket, you're a fucking cyborg Denton/Adam.

The newer games do, from memory, let you automatically recharge a few pips with time, but that's lame. I'd rather not play a game set in a parallel timeline where the Note 7 debacle put an end to the development of battery technology.

I've been playing Rimworld again, courtesy of creating a mod for it. Miraculously, the 450 strong modpack of last year somehow worked, even after I threw in another 50 for taste. My runs usually die of boredom, TPS death (a 9800x3d and a 5080 only go so far in this game), or modpack instability/conflict. And I never play without dev mode enabled, because some modders have interesting takes on balance.

For example, I installed a mod that adds a bunch of cool guns and armor. It also, for no real reason, adds a spacer-tech faction that's intent on making a Banana Republic a reality in 5500 - you have one in game year to raise a massive crop of GMO fruit for them, or they'll clap your ass. I forgot about it, and was raided by 2 pawns with armor that could stand up to the scrutiny of God himself, and guns that could give him a migraine. My poor colonists lasted all of 30 seconds, and then I reloaded and deleted the enemy from existence because there is no God but me in these parts. Not quite VOID level, but goddamn. One year?? You're lucky to have a fabrication bench by then.

I'd rather not play a game set in a parallel timeline where the Note 7 debacle put an end to the development of battery technology.

Some fun quotes regarding futuristic energy storage:

GURPS Ultra-Tech:

Equipment, robots, and vehicles often use standardized power supplies, known as power cells. All power cells are assumed to be compact and relatively inexpensive. They may be advanced electrical batteries, micro fuel cells, superconductor loops, or even more exotic power supplies.

GURPS High-Tech: Electricity and Electronics:

Supercapacitors (TL8; prototype 1954, working model 1978) are intermediate between capacitors and rechargeable batteries. They can be rated for size like [ordinary alkaline] batteries, but have the power output of batteries 10 times larger for a duration of 1 minute. They cost 20 times a comparably sized battery. The power cells in GURPS Ultra-Tech might be advanced supercapacitors.

A flywheel stores energy in dense material spinning extremely fast. A set of coils acts as a motor when power is fed in, speeding it up, or as a generator when power is taken out, slowing it down. Peak output lasts up to 2 minutes. The power cells in GURPS Ultra-Tech might be advanced flywheels.

Flywheels come in weights comparable to larger batteries, though volume is greater.

  • Medium. Stores 2/3 the energy of an M battery, but peak output is 60 times as high (equal to household power). ×100 cost.

  • Large. Stores as much energy as an L battery, but peak output is 100 times as high (equal to industrial power). ×500 cost.

  • Very Large. Stores as much energy as a VL battery, but peak output is 100 times as high. ×1250 cost.

  • Steel (TL7). Only available in L and VL. ×4.5 weight, ×1/3 cost.

  • Titanium (TL7). Only available in L and VL. ×4/3 energy, ×3 weight, ×2/3 cost.

  • Carbon Fiber Composite (TL8). Available in all sizes with statistics given above.

The second one was written by William H Stoddard, a sure sign of quality.

I regret that I never got to play much GURPS.

You don't need to play it in order to enjoy the books.

Steve Jackson himself has stated in interviews that one-third of GURPS book buyers actually play that system, one-third use GURPS books with other systems, and one-third just buy GURPS books to read them without playing any TTRPGs at all. I am in the third category.

I've been playing TTRPGs regularly for almost 30 years. GURPS is definitely my most extreme ratio of time spent reading to time spent playing. It was just all so elegant. But most of my friends like less crunchy, or more setting-specific stuff.

aaaah, GURPS, my truest roleplaying love. My transition to young adulthood was marked by switching from Battletech mech design to GURPS Vehicles 2nd ed and GURPS Robots, the former of which I wore out the spine on in short order. Truly, a more elegant game for a more civilized time.

Allegedly, GURPS Vehicles Third Edition will be published sometime soon—albeit independently by Pulver and with the serial numbers filed off, since Steve Jackson Games can't spare the money to edit it even though it's already largely complete.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats