Cain on Games - Tim Cain's new YouTube channel

[Bad Sector]

It would be more reasonable to test for things like "actual gameplay has been stuck for X frames now" to decide whether you're dealing with an infinite loop or not,

This only works if the scripting language works in parallel with the rest of the game engine but it is a very uncommon approach, most game engines have the scripting language work in sync with the rest of the engine - e.g. the engine makes a call to script foo, script foo executes and finishes, engine resumes execution after that (often it is really just like a function call).

rather than fucking with the guy trying to initialize some data in a loop.

Generally speaking if this is something the guy is supposed to do, the scripting language should allow it, but in general scripting languages in games are meant just for that: scripting the game's behavior, not writing the behavior. Or to put it another way, you use the scripting language to tell the engine what to do, but not how to do it.

FWIW IMO the "best" approach would be to use time when checking for infinite loops: if the loop takes something like 5 seconds (which should be *WAY* more than enough - loops in scripts shouldn't even take a second), then it should trigger some failsafe. But i put "best" in quotes because at that point the game state would be broken anyway and the best you can do is show a message to the user to restart the game. Ideally the scripting language should provide mechanisms (e.g. enumerators) so that most such loops should not be needed in the first place (and chances are they'll be much faster than anything a script could do).

 

[xan]

Watched a handful of these in no particular order.

The chat he and Leonard have is full of interesting asides and insights. The fact that Fallout uses 40s Americana (not 50s) as a cultural influence is pretty important. It's why Louis Armstrong is arguably misjudged as the tone setting opening to 2. Although as they both agree this aspect of design only applied to the Vault boy, and other separate elements, and that the Mad Max jackets, and spiked armor, for example, were not revised to better reflect the theme. So, now people imagine that a fundamental part of Fallout DNA is 50s Americana liberally infusing every part of the games identity, when in reality the creators applied a 40s aesthetic in a limited and specific manner.

Also, it didn't seem to occur to Tim that Fargo might have been ribbing him for being oversensitive to some suit brushing off his boxart concerns by offering to immediately fire her on the spot.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about the rise of new artificial intelligence tools and what it might mean for the game industry.

 

[0sacred]

Sorry Tim, I already know everything there is to know about AI from Kamala Harris.

 

[deama]

I wonder if he's seen that bannerlord video where some guy integrated chatgpt into the npcs.
Or the one where the guy walks in some city and chats to people and chatgpt responds in the background.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about the similarities of Elden Ring and EverQuest, which led me to liking both of those games.

 

[Roguey]

Tim thought the Souls games were too linear and the combat too choreographed.

He likes high level creatures in low level zones.

He likes multiplayer games that can be solo'd and become easier with multiplayer.

He likes not being gated from high-level areas.

Also ways Morrowind is like Elden Rang: Big open world, no quest markers, no indication of how your decisions will affect you in the future, and big annoying birds always attacking you

 

[deama]

I wonder what'd he'd think of gothic?

 

[Infinitron]

Hmmm:

I talk about whether I am an extrovert or an introvert, and how that impacted my work in game development.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Personality test told Tim that he lacks personality.

 

[Roguey]

I could tell from his anecdotes about dealing with Fargo and other managers that's he's an introvert (but not a socially anxious one). Yeah, he can socialize with people for a time, but he's drained by it and needs alone-time to recharge. Guys like Fargo are energized by their interactions with others.

 

[0sacred]

I could tell from his anecdotes about dealing with Fargo and other managers that's he's an introvert

I could tell from the fact that he has an account on RPG Codex (also from the fact that he has done anything worthwhile in life)

 

[skaraher]

Tim thought the Souls games were too linear and the combat too choreographed.

He likes high level creatures in low level zones.

He likes multiplayer games that can be solo'd and become easier with multiplayer.

He likes not being gated from high-level areas.

Also ways Morrowind is like Elden Rang: Big open world, no quest markers, no indication of how your decisions will affect you in the future, and big annoying birds always attacking you

Dont know about the later ones, but Dark Souls dont really have a linear structure. It is less linear than most action RPG.

 

[Roguey]

Dont know about the later ones, but Dark Souls dont really have a linear structure. It is less linear than most action RPG.

Yeah, I only played the first for a few hours but it certainly had "not being gated from high level areas" as a feature. Maybe he didn't like the corridor-like nature of the level design or got filtered since you really ought to stick to the intended path.

 

[skaraher]

Never forget that a man as great as Magister Christus Avellonus got filtered by Arcanum's wolves.

 

[Old Hans]

Dont know about the later ones, but Dark Souls dont really have a linear structure. It is less linear than most action RPG.

Yeah, I only played the first for a few hours but it certainly had "not being gated from high level areas" as a feature. Maybe he didn't like the corridor-like nature of the level design or got filtered since you really ought to stick to the intended path.

I bet he got stuck on Phalanx in 2009, gave up, and as a coping mechanism he convinced himself the game was too linear

 

[Roguey]

How Arcanum's tech skills and shematics changed



Didn't really care for these, but it's funny how it started off worse than it was.

 

[skaraher]

How Arcanum's tech skills and shematics changed



Didn't really care for these, but it's funny how it started off worse than it was.

They dropped the ball by making tech mechanically inferior to magic in every way but making the story about tech massively replacing magic.

 

[Infinitron]

I summarize my career, starting on my 16th birthday in August 1981 until today in September 2023.

 

[0sacred]

Is it just me or is Tim getting really in the zone when he's pleased with himself

 

[turkishronin]

gay and jolly

 

[Roguey]

Re-affirming what we knew from those old NPD numbers:
Bloodlines: didn't sell well
ToEE: didn't review well but sold better than Bloodlines
Arcanum: Most successful on both counts

Interesting downward trajectory.

"I did do some design stuff, all of it went through Josh Sawyer, who - [is a] really good designer."

"The stronghold design, although that got a lot of modifications from Josh." Passing the blame?

"Tyranny was a super fun game."

Tim had a lot of fun with Tyranny because he was just left alone to code (in contrast to some of the narrative designers who seethed over how much reactivity they had to do according to Avellone).

Tim worked more on Murder on Eridanos than Peril on Gorgon and liked its humor. Makes sense that he would want to stick with his hag from Carbine (also he mentioned in a previous video that he disagrees with Patel's thoughts on game management).

He wanted to stay as an Obsidian employee when he moved to Seattle but they're not set up for that, so he switched to being a contractor. The contract didn't say he couldn't work for other studios, so he spread his wings a bit (still can't say what the project is).

 

[Harthwain]

Tim had a lot of fun with Tyranny because he was just left alone to code (in contrast to some of the narrative designers who seethed over how much reactivity they had to do according to Avellone).

That's funny, because reactivity was one of the better parts of Tyranny.

 

[turkishronin]

Tyranny is the best original Obsidian game and I hate that it's never going to get a sequel

 

[agris]

Tyranny is the best original Obsidian game and I hate that it's never going to get a sequel

alpha brotocol would like a word with you