So there's a possibility the instance I use will go offline. I've never had to think about this until now, but I want to choose a new instance and I'm wondering how this will affect things.

Certain instances have defederated from furry instances right? If I create an account on pawb.social for example, will I lose access to any particular communities? Is that a stable server running the latest version of Lemmy?

I'm unsure where this problem originates, but my guess would be the instance as it's consistent no matter where I try to post (local or external communities).

Whenever I try to attach an image to a post, I'm getting the following error:

{"data":{"msg":"Error in DB","files":null},"state":"success"}

Does anyone more knowledgeable about these sort of things have any clue what that's about?

A fascinating summary of every type of plant, organised by evolutionary links

Looking at a microphone under an electron microscope to discover how it works

After several months I've eventually finished this game. I've played other 'mixed-genre' visual novels before (Danganronpa, Persona and Ace Attorney for example) and generally enjoyed them. And yes, I did find 13 Sentinels interesting and fun to play for the most part. I'd definitely recommend trying it.

However I think the way the story was presented made an already complex story unnecessarily confusing at points. For context, the story is told from the perspectives of 13 separate protagonists, in short chunks. Because of the way you unlock different sections of the story (either by getting to a certain part with one character, or making progress in the battle mode), you'll be shifting through each of the individual stories constantly.

In some ways this is a neat way to tell the story and keep things mysterious, but when there are so many characters with branching storylines it becomes a lot! Granted, it probably didn't help that it took me several months to get through it - that was mainly the result of the battle mode feeling like a chore to play at points.

Despite all this I did really like where the story went, and it mostly makes sense after one playthrough.

Some aspects of the story that I'm still unclear on:

If you like visual novels, confusing anime storylines and science fiction you'll probably enjoy this game. Visually it's very impressive with some beautiful animation on the characters and painterly backgrounds. The voice acting and music is excellent, perfecting fitting with the tone of the game. It's likely not for everyone, but if you're willing to accept its shortcomings it is worth playing for the fascinating story alone.

So this isn't a major thing, but I've blocked some bots (e.g. ones that provide an alternative video link on every YouTube post), and whenever I see a post like this, it still shows 1 comment. So I go in, and there's nothing there. Obviously it's still counting the blocked account commenting within this total.

In order to see what people are actually commenting on, is it possible to have the option to adjust this total to ignore blocked accounts?

It's been a while since I was taught Chemistry, but I was reading something the other day and I couldn't quite get my head around the concept.

So the periodic table shows elements with their atomic numbers (protons) and atomic weight (protons + neutrons). Isotopes have different numbers of neutrons, like carbon-12 and carbon-13 which I believe would have 6 and 7 neurons respectively.

So why is carbon-12 the 'default' option, shown on the periodic table? Is it to do with which version of carbon is the most common? I don't understand how we decide what makes up the pure version of an element/ it's atomic weight as shown on the periodic table

Really well produced video about the effects of pressure on different elements

I understand that the Romans were unable to conquer Scotland so they build Hadrian's Wall (which explains the survival of older cultures there). But as far as I know they occupied Wales and Cornwall, so how is it that the Celtic culture (language etc.) survived in those places?

So this is a very niche tool, but I thought I'd post about it in case it has uses elsewhere.

Recently I heard about Moonring, a free RPG based on the Ultima games. It's really fun, and it seemed like a nice fit for the Deck. And for the most part it is - there are plenty of custom control layouts already that work well.

The one thing that annoyed me however is speaking to NPCs. You need to listen out for keywords and then type those in to advance the conversation. The game auto suggests what you may wish to say - for example 'treasure' may be mentioned and when you type 't' it suggests the full word. You then press tab to confirm. So a lot of the time I'd need to type a+tab, b+tab etc. This should work fine in theory but the steam keyboard is extremely temperamental! Bringing it up every time I wanted to quickly type was annoying me...

So I wanted to know if virtual menus could help, and yes!

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To set this up, you want to create 8 Action Sets, labelled ABC, DEF and so on (PQRS and WXYZ are grouped, like on an old phone keypad). Personally I'd set ABC up first and then you can copy that action set when creating the others.

Whilst in the controller settings, press R1 to move across to the ABC action set, and then create a radial menu on the left trackpad. Within those settings, set the center button as changing the action set to default. Then add new buttons to trigger A, B and C. Under general settings, change button type to 'release', otherwise it can be quite easy to misinput when using the menus. Create the remaining action sets by copying ABC and change the buttons for the remaining letters.

Finally, create a touch menu on the default action set with buttons to change between the action sets. I also added buttons for tab, backspace and enter. As before, make sure it's set to 'release' activation rather than click.

I'm not sure how useful this will be to (if you want to type anything substantial, the regular keyboard does a good job) but it's cool to know that it's possible!

I might edit a few bits in my controller layout, then I'll export it in case anyone else wants to try this out.

Edit: Now uploaded to the community as 'Omega's layout' :)

Someone loading up my game saves would see the unlocks, routes and choices I made. The physical actions in real life etched to the digital. A little piece of my life stored to semiconductors.

Something I've never been that great at is spontaneous conversation. I'm more than capable of public speaking if I've prepared something in advance. But if someone asks me something out of the blue, I really struggle to engage in deep conversation. Afterwards I'll think to myself damn, why didn't I bring up X or Y?

Half the time I don't know what to add and I struggle to think of what to say. Sometimes words feel like they're on the tip of my tongue and I can't get them out, especially when I'm under pressure. And in group conversations, I find it hard to interject when I do think of a point. By the time a natural break comes along, the conversation has moved on.

I'd love to get better at this. What can I do to improve?

A few years back I tried to play this on PS4 (it was a free PS+ game at one point). I didn't give it much of a chance, and my subscription ended before I got round to finishing it. But boy am I glad I gave it another go! What a great game.

To be clear, I played the HD version on Steam, which is a glammed up port of the 2002 Gamecube remaster. The pre-rendered backgrounds look great, with some nice reflections and lighting effects on top. Having fixed camera angles did take some getting used to, but actually added some additional tension because you didn't always know what would be coming up around the corner. I've previously played RE2 Remake and RE4 (original), and I reckon RE1 is the spookiest of these. The macabre notes you find, the eerily quiet mansion, and the constant fear of death when you have limited saves all contribute to an underlying dread. By the end of the game I knew the mansion layout pretty well (there was a LOT of backtracking required. Especially as I was playing as Chris, who only has 6 inventory slots).

Mercifully the HD version has a new control scheme so I didn't have to worry about tank controls. The gun aiming controls were fine, although I'm not sure how headshots work. I think if you aim upwards at the last minute, you have a % chance to get a critical hit. One thing I'd recommend to new players - if you don't decapitate a regular zombie, make sure you burn the body. Otherwise they'll come back as stronger, faster ones later on which can be very dangerous.

Throughout my playthrough I felt like I was playing an escape room (or, escape house) more than a third person shooter. The zombies are there to build the tension, but the puzzle of the mansion is the actual gameplay for the most part. Most of the puzzles were pretty standard fare, but a few stuck out in my mind:

\ Surprisingly I felt like this was a good fit for the Steam Deck. Playing it handheld in short bursts was perfect, and it also runs smoothly at 1080p when docked.

If you haven't played this one before it's well worth it! Quite a different experience from the later RE games but you can clearly see how this one set the seed for the rest of the series. Despite my initial aversion to the camera angles and controls, once it clicked I couldn't stop playing. It goes on sale really cheap on Steam so definitely give it a go :)

The other week I played through the original Dead Space, and I've now followed that up with the well-regarded sequel.

Wow - this game really improves on all aspects of the original! Graphically it's a huge step up, with some incredible lighting effects and texture detail. It honestly still looks amazing to this day.

The guns feel a lot tighter to use, and that's coupled with some nice new animations (seeing the used ammo vent on the plasma cutter when you reload is always satisfying) and punchy sound effects. Little things like the ability to reload without having to aim down sight make the game a lot less frustrating than the original. I also found myself using the stasis ability in every fight (unlike the first game); it's now an AOE which is super handy when you don't have much time to react (in particular the enemies that hide behind cover and then rush you when you least expect it). One neat new feature is the ability to rip off enemy arms and use them to skewer others. Extremely satisfying!

I actually found DS2 to be a lot scarier than the original. There were a few jump scare moments, really creepy hallucinations appearing on screens and just some great environmental spookiness. If anyone ever played PT, that's the sort of vibe I felt - picture an old radio playing a recording, windows rattling in the wind and something creaking down the hallway... You're on edge and then an enemy drops down from the ceiling! The fact that the game is so visually dark really added to this effect - it was sometimes hard to see without your flashlight.

The setting was much more varied - shopping centres, apartments, churches and maintenance areas. I didn't find myself getting lost as much as I did in the first game. The zero gravity sections were easier to navigate too as the aerial movement system had been reworked.

Somewhat annoyingly, the PC version is loaded with all the DLC so the shop is flooded with free weapons and armour. These DLC items have icons next to them so they're easy enough to ignore, though I wish you could turn them off. I also found the armour unlocks a bit weird - it seems like most of them were locked behind the doors that required a power node? Bit of an odd design choice.

Overall though I really enjoyed Dead Space 2. It holds up extremely well for a game from 13 years ago, so I'd recommend you give it a go if you haven't already. Playing the original first was well worth it for some of the story points of the second.

Keeping with the spooky theme I've just started playing through the HD version of Resident Evil. Let me know if you'd like a write up once I've finished that :)

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I saw this on the side of the road next to a tree. It was pretty big and quite an unusual shape! There was a smaller one just behind it. I've never seen a fungus like this so thought I'd snap a pic.