• 2 Posts
  • 18 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 26th, 2023

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  • Game dev is a very varied field, there’s lots of ways to get into it and there’s (almost) no bad choice as long as you put effort into it. Game development includes even things like art, sound, music, writing etc. which all are exciting in their own right (and indeed, if you want to make a game by yourself you’ll have the chance to dabble in all of them), but from the way you phrased your question I’m assuming that you want to focus first on the programming(/game engine) part.

    For game engines, I’ve heard a lot of praise for Godot, both for its good design and possibilities. For a first game engine, I’d pick one that is well documented, has a strong community and a doable learning curve, I think Godot ticks all boxes. After that, you can look around to see if another engine matches your needs better, but you’ll already be familiar with the basics which are transferable.

    For programming, the basic skills are again transferable between different languages of the same type; any popular imperative language should do. Lua is simple and straightforward, Python probably has the most resources for beginners, C still is the basis for a lot of the systems in use and will teach you more about computer science if you feel like it, C++ is popular for bigger projects in gamedev, the list goes on. No reason to be overwhelmed by choice though; pick any of them that seems to “click” with you and if you want to switch a few months later, you’ll get up to speed fast. Once you pick a language and have gone through the basics of it, a good game dev exercise I think is to try to make clones of existing small games. Games like Tic Tac Toe, Snake, Pong hold a surprising amount of challenges which will all come in handy when you’ll start making your own (more complex) thing.

    Personally I have more experience with programming than with game engines, but you could go with either of them and leave the other for later as needed. As long as you’re motivated and put in effort, you’ll get there :)


  • Soweit ich das verstehe, kann man mit einem Account auf Instanz A bei allen anderen Instanzen mitmachen (lesen/kommentieren) die nicht explizit blockiert sind (was sehr selten vorkommt).

    Insofern ist es schon dezentralisiert. Natürlich muss die Instanz der Gemeinde auch online sein um mitzumachen, aber das ist genauso bei zentralisierten Foren wie Reddit. Der Unterschied ist dass, wenn eine Instanz offline ist/blockiert wird, man mit seinem Account immer noch mit anderen Instanzen kommunizieren kann. Das würde bei zentralisierten Seiten wie Reddit nicht funktionieren (wenn Reddit nicht erreichbar ist, sind alle Reddit-Gemeinden weg).



  • This is a very inaccurate map, as it lumps the actual Italian empire, protectorates and administrated regions all together as one. The map’s resolution is very small so it’s hard to tell, but some places are marked that were none of the above (e.g. Athens in Axis-occupued Greece).

    Even worse though, this map includes regions that were never under Italian control simultaneously. Quoting from the Wikipedia image on the linked article (and which this map is an either accidental or intentional worse copy of):

    Italian Colonial Empire. Every territory ever controlled by the Italian Empire as some point in time during World War II. (many of those were not under Italian control until November 1942/early 1943, and East Africa was lost before the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941)





  • I’ve been playing it sporadically over the past 10 years and I’d say it’s a lot of fun! Very easy to get into, even for people with little strategy experience. The mechanics are clear and not overly complex; for beginners and intermediate players I feel like it’s just the right balance.

    It also runs on pretty much anything (as demonstrated^), so I like having it installed and playing a short skirmish for 20-30’ if I’m bored. Alternatively, there’s plenty of decent campaigns, and a lot of fan content (and a map editor if you want to try your hands at it).

    I’ve only played it a computer though, so not sure how well the interface works for touchscreens.





  • Nice idea about the GPS receiver, I hadn’t thought of this workaround.

    I ~recently got a Fairphone as well, and while it’s the next model, the fact that I can see them still supporting the FP3 with both hardware and software was what convinced me that they’ll probably keep the same promise with my model in the future.

    Apart from no headphone jack and it being a little bigger than I’d like, I’m very happy with the FP4. I intend to use it until the end of its 5-year warranty, and reading about the longevity of yours makes me optimistic. Thanks for sharing!


  • It certainly has a learning curve, and not everything is well designed. However, I think that’s unfortunately to be expected of the whole domain; ERP tends to be one of the most complex types of software. The question is, which option makes this whole complexity less painful/overwhelming.

    For the scope, features and breadth that Odoo offers, I think it’s doing a decent job (albeit with lots of room for improvement).

    Is there any alternative ERP system of a ~comparable scope that you could alternatively recommend? Python-based is ideal, but other languages are also fine.


  • I used to only get lower mid-range phones (~€250, and not latest models) and keep them as long as possible, mostly due to financial and environmental concerns. My last phone broke a few months ago so I got a Fairphone 4 as a replacement.

    I’m very satisfied so far, but of course I’m not accustomed to fancy phones either so I’m aware that the bar is lower for me. Functionally speaking it does what I want it to, and feels good enough to fulfill my modest needs even in 4-5 years from now when requirements will have gone up.

    The price is significantly higher than any other phone I’d bought - but I’m fine with that due to the extended warranty. I’ll save money from not buying another phone in 3-4 years, and the added peace of mind from not having to replace the whole phone if anything were to break is worth some money in itself too.

    But all the above would only convince me of 80-90% of the price. The fair production and environmental/personal freedom aspect of the phone are both the reason for the higher price but also why I’m happy to pay the price. I’d rather know that €500 is supporting things I want to see more of, than €300 is encouraging and perpetuating things that dislike.

    But I also fully understand that I happen to have a little money to spare - a few years ago I was very tight with money, so as much as I would’ve liked to support it I’d have to make do with what I had. There’s other ways to help if money’s tight: Like I think also FP themselves say, “the most sustainable phone is the one you’re already using” (or something along those lines).

    In short, my advice from my personal (limited) experience would be:

    • If you can afford it and don’t have very high needs, the FP4 is a good long-term investment.
    • If you want a higher-end phone/even longer parts availability, go rather for the FP5.
    • If you want a high-end phone but foresee that you’d like to continue switching to higher-end phones fairly frequently, a non-FP would make more sense.
    • If you are very tight on money and the FP4 is too expensive, a cheap conventional mid-range phone would provide most of the same functionality (bar longevity) for a significantly lower price.

    __

    Finally, one note on the warranties: iirc (do correct me if I’m wrong), the FP4 will allow for an extended warranty of 5 years only until the end of 2023, after that it’ll be 3 years. So if you’re going for a FP4 it’d make more sense to buy before the year ends. The FP5 continues to offer a 5 year extended warranty regardless of when you buy it.







  • My mom gave me the Hobbit book when I was in early elementary school, and I loved it.

    A few years later, the Lord of the Rings movies came out, though I was still too young to see them. Some of my classmates did though, but seeing them mostly imitating the “cool” characters fighting put me off of what I perceived was a generic Hollywood rip-off of the Hobbit (I knew there was a ring that makes people invisible, along with hobbits and elves, so understood that it was set in the same universe).

    My godmother gifted me the first book around that time, and I realized that it was a real book by the same author. Hoping for a second Hobbit, I tried to read it but got stuck in the first twenty pages where Tolkien was describing the different types of hobbits, and gave up on it.

    A few years later, the first movie was shown on TV. I didn’t have high expectations of what I still thought would be a shallow Hollywood adaptation of Tolkien’s world, but was (in hindsight predictably) blown away. I loved everything about it, enough to motivate me to give the books another try, and started looking for more information online about that world. The second movie came out on TV a little later, and I didn’t want to wait for the third one so I spent some of my precious allowance on the DVD collection and finally watched the whole trilogy.

    Looking back, I don’t mind missing out on the movies the first time around; if anything, the absence of hype made it feel more personal (nevermind the slight mocking of classmates when I’d be googling “LotR” in computer class, three years after the movies came out and when the rest of my classmates were mostly over them).

    And I am probably in a very small minority to have low expectations before watching the movie. The contrasting amazement and marvel I felt is something I still cherish to this day.