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  1. Ukerric

    Lumi's Batshit Insane Thread

    Don't worry, you're going to go to GMO wheat soon Rothamsted Research submits application to Defra for permission to carry out field trial with GM wheat plants There is no escaping frankenbread now!
  2. Ukerric

    Science!! Fucking magnets, how do they work?

    That is, until your number is disconnected by the automatic account management for "failing to settle outstanding bills" because no one has access to the Iridium offices anymore.
  3. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    South Asia is pretty much MMO central for awesome graphics along with poor gameplay.
  4. Ukerric

    Lumi's Batshit Insane Thread

    COINCIDENCE??!? Just at the annual meeting of Inserm (French NIH), and there's a presentation by the head of Ethic council here that just laments the abysmal rates of vaccination against Hep-B and HPV in France, "possibly due to lack of trust in scientific integrity".
  5. Ukerric

    Everquest II

    It was released on Nov 2004, so you'll have to wait until nov 2017 for that 13th year anniversary.
  6. Ukerric

    World of Warcraft: Current Year

    Secret mind-enhancing drugs from KGB experimental programs. Anything for Russia First!
  7. Ukerric

    The Sci-Fi Book Thread

    Strictly speaking, it's not LitRPG; no virtual game/VR world or even portal fantasy. But yea, once I picked that, my suggestion list doubled in size with all sort of virtual world stuff. Noticed your Way of the Shaman, might get a look later. Another set of novels that came from the suggestion...
  8. Ukerric

    Science!! Fucking magnets, how do they work?

    Homo Sapiens already went thru a genetic bottleneck. Prior to our expansion out of Africa, the estimates are that at one point there was less than 10K humans around. Save for a handful of % DNA from neanderthal or denisovans that were out before, every single one of the 7+ billion people on...
  9. Ukerric

    The Expanse

    Yea but TMDB has slightly more spoiling one-line description. I guess everyone will have a major shock on ep 5... (and I didn't expect them to move stuff so fast)
  10. Ukerric

    The Expanse

    My main beef is that they start a bit too slowly with Sgt. Draper. We all see she's a badass and all, but unless you're a book reader, there's absolutely nothing to tell you she's important to the series. She ships to Phoebe, they all go rah-rah-rah, and then... nothing happens (Phoebe gets...
  11. Ukerric

    Lumi's Batshit Insane Thread

    Wakefield hoped to peddle the new adjuvant he had invested into. If he could get the industry to switch to his product for their vaccines, he'd make millions from royalties.
  12. Ukerric

    The Expanse

    When you're my age, you watch TV with what's in front of your couch, like everyone else did in the days! If it's not 44", it's not TV!
  13. Ukerric

    The Expanse

    Bleh, SyFy won't be showing it in France (at least for a while)
  14. Ukerric

    Lumi's Batshit Insane Thread

    And the FDA will not. Trump just issued an executive order instructing every agency to "remove 2 regulations for every new regulation". Trump is extremely anti-regulation and wants every industry to have free hands to do whatever it takes to MTGA (Make Themselves Great Again). Don't expect the...
  15. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    Mostly, if you want to recreate an EQ feeling, there are the core things you would need: - Complex travel (while one unlockable flight-path per zone is ok, the 5 flight-paths per zone that modern WoW has, and EQ2 had, are overkill) - Loot that requires groups to get (whether outdoor or in...
  16. Ukerric

    EQ Next: #1 Next gen MMO

    It's basically the Sims.
  17. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    There's a throwback to this in recent WoW. Highmountain has an area with harpies and bears that's used for quest and WQ, but has an elite boss-like Ettin walking around. If you're squishy, and full health, you get 2 shot. If you're half-health or undergeared, you get one-shot. It's always funny...
  18. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    Downtime is ok in a group situation, where you might take time to chat a bit. But it absolutely sucks in solo play. And if your game doesn't offer solo play in one form or another, you've probably lost.
  19. Ukerric

    World of Warcraft: Current Year

    There's a shitton of catch-up mechanics. You're not going to catch-up in 2-3 weeks, but you're not 6 months behind. Mythic is the new Challenge mode. Basically, you start at heroic-style difficulty (but without an automatic LFG matchup), finish the dungeon, get a Keystone for Mythic+2. It's for...
  20. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    This is mostly a limitation of the boss tank and spank model of raids. WoW has the same problem in its modern design: every raid is designed for exactly 2 tanks, no matter how many players come. If you have a 5-group raid of 25, then you bring 2 tanks, not 5. Which fucks the dynamics because...
  21. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    We've learned, like 10 years ago, that "dps" is not a good role to make. No, you need many. What you don't need is classes that will only tank, or only CC, etc. If your group need "role X" to perform well, then a large number of classes should be able to do it. How many depends on the size of...
  22. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Given the thermal variation between night and day, the poles are almost certainly among the best locations for any permanent base. Take a lunar telescope, for instance. It's the easiest "use case" for lunar bases: you get the advantages of a ground-built telescope (large base, maintenance) and...
  23. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    Stop thinking about classes, think about roles. There are about 5 core roles in a group setting, which are: - Tank - Heal - Group buff (long term/auras and short term boosts) - Enemy debuffs - CC with the optional scout/pull "6th" role (which would require a 6th slot in a group). That's what...
  24. Ukerric

    World of Warcraft: Current Year

    If you haven't finished the Suramar Uprising quest line (now that all of it is available), it has tons of AP, assuming you're at AK25. If you're not, I'd suggest delaying doing that and doing the repeatable content (every AP WQ, bags, mythic+ runs, whatever you can get your hands on) until...
  25. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Trump + Musk (twice now) = Mars 2024? If he gets reelected, that'd be the crowning moment of his presidency.
  26. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Can't remember exactly, but wasn't this last launch the first time we saw the landing live from the 1st stage's camera? Usually the uplink breaks completely, but this time it still managed to update a couple frames here and there...
  27. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    That's what we did at Nevrax as part of the pre-prod/production work for Ryzom. But it was structured; the producers and lead devs never actually played the competition. There was a dedicated team (of... 1) that would be playing about everything (that was in 2000, so we had mostly UO, EQ, AC...
  28. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Oh, no. You can use solar panels. At least 15 days out of around 29. No need of undeveloped technologies. The same applies for spaceships propelled with LOX_H. You carry the water/ice, and start your electrolysis operation as you approach the moment where you're going to brake; you only need...
  29. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Yep, except for the part where you have to ship the ice back to earth/mars/wherever for use. That's where the economics of the thing become complicated. You need to factor the cost of bringing the fuel from wherever, plus the anticipation cost (your fuel has to be extracted months/years in...
  30. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    He3 might be key to fusion and lots of energy, but it's shit for rocket fuel. For rocketry, you want an oxydizing stuff. Nitrogen-based stuff is good because it's easy to keep for the trip to wherever. LOX+stuff is slightly worse. The simplest fuel from the moon would be... lox+hydrogen (that...
  31. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Depends on available resources on it. It's like earth: fuel is the key to the economy. Right now, if you ship to earth orbit (LEO to geosync), it's ok to send everything from the ground. But once you start going somewhere else, unless magic farting unicorns drives exists, then you have two...
  32. Ukerric

    World of Warcraft: Current Year

    Wands basically became one-hand weapons similar to daggers/maces for priest. They serve as stat sticks, but unlike dagger/maces, you can't use them to melee (I think), which is why the damage on them is completely irrelevant. You can still use the original weapons, like staves. And I hate that...
  33. Ukerric

    The Sci-Fi Book Thread

    About 4 times a year, I delve in indy writing, and I usually end up disappointed, but my Q1 foray was not. Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon book 1) goes into a setting that I absolutely adore: the Dungeon Keeper type games. It's basically Dungeon Keeper, told from the twin perspectives of the...
  34. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    And perfect landing shot. (apparently a first for that drone landing pad)
  35. Ukerric

    The Astronomy Thread

    Remember for today:
  36. Ukerric

    Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

    VGA is fine, 24fps is fine and 640k ought to be enough for anybody. (I might slip in the "There's market for 5 computers in the world" quote, if you're willing)
  37. Ukerric

    A Song of Ice and Fire - Book Spoilers Within

    Yea, he's got a second series coming on TV, since NBCU picked the Wild Cards for adaptation last year...
  38. Ukerric

    World of Warcraft: Current Year

    Tomb of Sargeras is definitively 7.2, probably Q2. Argus follows, but 7.2.5 or 7.3, who knows. And then, it's one year until Q3 2018 and the next expansion. Of course. As for the mythic stuff, I think the one thing I remember is them unlocking mythic-only dungeons for heroic modes in 7.2...
  39. Ukerric

    World of Warcraft: Current Year

    New ones will. For old ones, you get a repeatable quest that lets you farm NH bosses (50 drops, hope it's guaranteed drops) to get a token that increase the ilvl.