It’s trash as an idea generator.

The only useful thing I’ve gotten out of a (text) AI is asking it to guess functions of keyword mechanics in games. Like I was designing personality traits for AI leaders in a strategy game, and had a dozen bad candidates for “over produces defenses.” So I told ChatGPT to try to guess the meanings of bunkerist, hoxhaist, prepper, turtle, protectionist, survivalist, isolationist, guardian. Which did narrow it down to bunkerist, turtle, and protectionist (note that this is literally wrong in the case of protectionist). Normally I’d try to poll a bunch of random people for this sort of thing, and try to avoid anyone who’s trying to be clever. So it did save some work there.

It won’t come up with anything useful going the other way around though (“list some possible names for traits of AI leaders in a strategy game”). Like I said, it doesn’t work as an idea generator.

I guess in general it’s probably useful if you’re in a situation where you need to make sure your writing is very very clear. If ChatGPT can correctly summarize what you wrote, it’s probably safe for people who are distracted or bad at reading or whatever.

This is great, love me some esolangs.

Weird the subtitles insist on calling brainfuck brainfog though.

Hey this is really cool.

I’m sure people will use it to make politicians say misleading things or whatever.

But I’m excited about people being able to have animated advisor portraits in indie games.

Nice ideas! Some already on my list, so we’re clearly on the same page.

Those last two combine in a cool way. If you have a machine that gives better outputs and requires faster inputs the longer it runs, then wiring all of its inputs to production boosters is good, but also hard because this sort of thing will encourage a very cramped design already.

Since this is happening inside a multiplayer game, where other players might not be doing automation gameplay, I want to be mindful of how much server horsepower an automation player uses. So giant Factorio-style megafactories aren’t a good fit (It’ll still be possible as a self-directed challenge, especially if you’re running a single player server, but it’ll need a hefty computer since I doubt I’ll optimize it as well as Factorio.)

Which means I can’t do Factorio’s thing where an X requires 10 Y requires 10 Z and the massive scale causes problems you need to work through, so I need to add complexity elsewhere to make factory play still challenging. Machines that require inputs from multiple different transport mechanisms are one way to do that. Another might be time-sensitive parts.

I’m up for suggestions on more ways to make particular machines a nuisance to work with.

I’m working on a 3D voxel game, where I plan to have automation mechanics eventually, so this has been on my mind.

In the current (very possibly changing) plan, the first automation tier will be conveyors that go straight into buildings, but later materials will be too delicate for conveyors and need to use pneumatic pipes, and the final tier will include materials that must be handled with Opus Magnum style swinging arms (which are also inserters).

I like changing the transport system is the best way to do progression in one of these games, because it’s directly tied to the map, and thus has the most options for subtlety and cascading changes. And having multiple separate systems feeding into the same process is of course good for adding complexity.

Oh, my PFP is just whatever came out of Dall-e when I told it to make me a screaming owl.

I meant whenever I actually release a game and need an actual studio logo, the barred owl was the most obnoxiously loud owl I could find, so that’s what I was planning to use

Oh no! I decided to use the barred owl as my mascot.

Wait you have a gaming discord?

Amazing

whoops late response lol

Is this another viral marketing campaign for Balenciaga?

Why not loud hooting?

Shit that’s awful.

The worst thing my autosuggest does is try to say “Happy birthday” at the start of every conversation and try to call everyone sweetie when I’m trying to say goodbye (I have never called someone sweetie).

I use DDG, but I use the !g (google) bang a lot, either for site: search, or when my query gets complicated enough that DDG will get confused and Google will still actually look for something useful after ignoring half my terms. The bangs are useful in general though; even just !w makes it more useful than Google. (I mean I could set up quick searches in my browser, but nobody has done that since 2008.)

I’ve been thinking of trying out Kagi, a paid premium search engine. A bunch of people on hackernews say it’s good, but what’d really sell me on it is a recommendation from someone who isn’t on hackernews.

oh I see

I cerberus dog dare you

Every time I’ve seen a professional glue something, it’s been box+X or box+stripes. Which was mostly before the invention of spray glue, because obviously that’s the better answer.

excuse me?

Woohoo owl party!

Yes, actually.

Wasps actually give me the creeps, maybe I should get an owl.

How is he coping a feel at that angle? Is his right elbow two thirds of the way down his arm?