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Alan Au

@alanau.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1.3K following 7K posts

Trickster disciple. 🦊 Game developer. 🎲️✂ Professional data generalist. 📊 Delightfully imperfect. ☁️ Not that kind of doctor. 🎓 [E] Itsatrap 🎮 He/Him

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Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · Nov 13

Days since uttering "what the actual fuck?": 0

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 19m

Oh yeah, drones are terrifying. But they're basically guided munitions.

As for a big mech vs. mech battle, yeah, it's sort of silly if you think about it. Although, I can see a case for versatility if have limited ability to deploy things, like a shortage of pilots or something.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 38m

Mecha are probably really hard to maintain relative to other types of vehicles. Basically, the question I have when I see a mech is "Why? Could you use something else?"

But again, it's really hard to beat the coolness factor.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 39m

I like that they're visually distinctive and intimidating, and I feel like that's the main attraction. Theoretically they can handle different sorts of environments more readily, like rough terrain. But other vehicles probably fill their niches better, so that's a downside; just use a tank.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 5h

I never did find a definitive answer about whether International Skeptics Day is in October or January. But if you celebrate it today, then happy International Skeptics Day to you!

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · Oct 13

Once again, my calendar says that October 13th is International Skeptics Day. Well, maybe. Some sources say it's on January 13th. Gotta check those sources.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

Sometimes I remember that I know things. That I have actual knowledge buried in my brain somewhere. And I'm occasionally slightly distressed by this.

Are those skills still usable, or are they just vestigial artifacts of a past career? Whose memories are these? What did I do with that person?

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

I was planning to spend today, uh ... "fixing" my sleep schedule. That and maybe trying to sort through one of my doom piles. I think I'm like 1 for 2 on that list. I mean in aggregate. They're both 50% done.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

more like ... antifat?

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

My current operating principle is that Data Science and UX are basically the same thing; the only difference is the tooling that you use. They are both trying to answer the same questions!

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

Epilogue: I think my graduate degree ended up being more about UX more than any technical discipline. It just happened to be domain-specific in a way that provided interesting examples. The skills are transferable, if you recognize their value.

Anyway, I no longer do any of that professionally. 🥲

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

Oh, and I guess there's the other situation where you ignore UX and your product sucks, maybe not from a pure engineering standpoint, but mysteriously nobody wants to use it.

There are not new problems. There are solutions. You don't have to self-sabotage like that.

~fin~

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

Best case, you decide that you do in fact need to hire a UX practitioner, in which case, why did you get rid of them in the first place? Worst case, you just push that task onto your engineering teams, with a corresponding drop in their development output.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

If you ignore formal UX, you're designing based on vibes. And if you think you have good judgment about that stuff, it's because you've internalized something about it. Well guess what; there are actual best practices. You don't have to reinvent it, and it's probably not a good use of your time.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

Normally I say you shouldn't apologize in advance, but for whatever reason I'm feeling a bit salty at this very moment and want to rant about executives who ignore UX as a discipline.

And it's hard to measure, so execs inevitably have trouble assessing its value. And I get that part but still ...

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

I remember trying to get it to run a few years ago. After poking at it, I managed to get it installed, but I don't think it quite runs properly.

Checking around, it looks like ScummVM thought about supporting it, but it's a proprietary engine (Unity, not that one) and doesn't quite work right.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 8h

One of the first things I liked to do when I moved to a new area was just randomly walk/drive around on side streets for a bit until I learned the immediate neighborhood.

And also, early navigation systems were dodgy, so it was better to actually know the roads a bit. Old habits never die.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 9h

Food? Again? Didn't I just eat *checks clock* 5 hours ago?

Reposted by Alan Au

Momo @heyheymomo.bsky.social · 10h

Watch it

Black and white line doodle of momo lying in the grass and it says ‘look out I’m vibing’

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 10h

I'm pretty sure they think the plan is to ride it out in private bunkers/yachts, which is a pretty grim plan even at best.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 10h

The demo didn't get that far into the advanced manufacturing stuff. I still plan to check out the game at some point, but TBH I should probably finish a full Factorio run before I start loading up on new games. (I usually stop right around the time Uranium processing becomes a thing.)

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 10h

I remember enjoying Elite Force. The graphics are a bit dated, of course. But generally, I think they did a good job of making the world feel right. I do still remember that the end boss didn't have a health bar though, and that was mildly annoying in a "am I even doing any damage?" way.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 10h

I remember the old TOS graphic adventures being fun, both 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites. I wonder if I can get those working again? Again, not thrilled with the space combat bits, but the stories felt very Trek to me.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 10h

STTNG: A Final Unity was great, although the ship combat segments were mediocre at best, and I think I just set the difficulty to whatever level let you skip them. They also used the CPU clock for timing so they don't work on modern machines.

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 10h

Oh right, having to stand close to things is definitely a downgrade. I do remember hoping it could be "upgraded" later, if not just turned into a standardized QoL improvement. Other games like Mindustry solve this by letting you lay a blueprint that your builder auto-completes when in range.

Reposted by Alan Au

Momo @heyheymomo.bsky.social · 11h

Some small guys for you

Few cute characters

Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 11h

I only played the demo, but I seem to remember underground passthroughs showing up fairly early. And yeah, I also remembering the UX being a bit clunky, although I'm not sure it's actually any worse than most other factory games.