The Bridge

Retrosaur

3:00 PM

Oh you can? OMG yay

My bp's value T.T

PL's value

fbueckert

@Retrosaur That's a bad comparison.

Powerlord

Also, really old Steam accounts (like mine) have email addresses as their actual login name.

Retrosaur

How so?

fbueckert

@Retrosaur Time spent is a huge deal.

Retrosaur

Not necessarily.

Sterno

3:02 PM

Sorry I was rude about it, iber. Really, though, if you find something weird like that in a game, you should really finish the game and see if it turns out to be relevant before you start asking Arqade about it. It's like pausing Star Wars 15 minutes in, thinking, "I wonder why Luke lives with his aunt & uncle? What happened to his parents?" and then going and asking, "What happened to Luke Skywalker's parents?" on scifi.stackexchange. Which I may go ask just for the entertainment value. — Oblivious Sage 16 hours ago

Retrosaur

Some traders barely play the game, and yet they've got bp values way higher than mines

Sterno

^ I like this idea, because it involves trolling SciFi.SE

Powerlord

I can't see the value images anyway. Stupid work block.

Wipqozn

@Sterno It would probably get a lot of up votes.

fbueckert

@Powerlord Your backpack is worth $600, apparently.

Grats on being able to quantify nine years of gameplay.

Retrosaur

3:04 PM

@Sterno Wat

OrigamiRobot

@Wipqozn It's Star Wars and trivial, of course it would.

Retrosaur

2

Q: What role does the number "77" play?

At the beginning of the game, you receive a telegram which tells you to avoid the number 77. Further down the line, during the chapter, you enter a raffle in which the number you pick is 77, and ends up leading to your first "firefight". I'm curious as to whether or not the number 77 plays a ro...

bioshock-infinite

Is this sarcasm

Powerlord

@fbueckert TF2 has only been out for 5 years.

Retrosaur

Iber's comment

fbueckert

@Powerlord Bwuh?

Wipqozn

3:05 PM

@Retrosaur I don't know. Just ignore it.

OrigamiRobot

@Retrosaur You can link comments directly.

fbueckert

I was sure it had been more than that.

Retrosaur

I have no clue how to get urls from comments

Powerlord

@fbueckert TF2 launched in October 2007. It's March 2013 now... so five and a half years.

I wonder if the big Halloween updates every year are to celebrate the game's anniversary.

OrigamiRobot

@Retrosaur Click the time.

Retrosaur

3:06 PM

Oh, I see

I so much love such lore questions. — iber 5 hours ago

fbueckert

@Powerlord Huh. I remember playing it at a LAN cafe a ton that shut down in 2008. Things I've learned.

Powerlord

As opposed to Team Fortress's anniversary, which is in August. Team Fortress was 16 years old last year.

<-- can't do math.

user15026

Whee, writing a long as hell essay on two books I haven't read. :D

Sconibulus

err...

Powerlord

Also, why the f' is the person's computer across the hall from me playing the Windows startup sound every other minute? Is he rebooting it a lot or just doing it to annoy the rest of us?

Sconibulus

3:08 PM

that's impressive? : () )

Retrosaur

@Powerlord It's his ringtone brah

Also, my bp

backpack.tf/profiles/76561198060713382

Sconibulus

@Powerlord Possibility 3, one of the rest of you is rebooting it remotely to annoy him

Powerlord

MOST of us have our computers volume turned down.

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord I don't even have speakers at work.

user15026

@Sconibulus I am in my final year-ish (calendar year) of university, and so very full of apathy. It makes life fun.

Powerlord

3:10 PM

@OrigamiRobot The models of computer we have has a speaker inside the case (a really cheap one I assume).

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@AshleyNunn And you get to graduate with first class honors in bullshitting. Come to think of it, I'm really disappointed our diplomas didn't come with that line. We did so many assignments like that, we should all get A+ in that subject.

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord Like an actual speaker? Not just for system beeps?

user15026

@YiJiang'sEvilClone well, not first class honours, but a 4 year general english degree with a side of major bullshit

Sconibulus

What books? Being able to write a detailed-type report without reading the material is pretty impressive anyway

Powerlord

@OrigamiRobot Yeah. It plays normal Windows sounds.

I assume its the same kind of speaker you see in laptops

Sconibulus

3:12 PM

I can barely write a detailed-type description of the things I write

user15026

@Sconibulus Mrs. Dalloway, and Ulysses

Retrosaur

beatport.com/track/tetrapod-original-mix/3180157

user15026

Between academic sources I am citing, and a side of Sparknotes, this will work out okay.

Sconibulus

Ulysses is the intentionally opaque book, right? I don't know Mrs. Dalloway

user15026

@Sconibulus It is the giant epic James Joyce wrote. I didn't read it because it is so freaking giant.

Retrosaur

3:14 PM

@powerlord Just curious, if you have time, would you like to sell your S. Baby Face and S. Spycicle for 1 ref

Powerlord

At some point, I should get the undead Heavy, Engineer, and Sniper souls for use with full moon.

@Retrosaur Maybe. Although my extra Spy-cicle is sitting on my other account.

Retrosaur

Alright.

Powerlord

Ha, my other account is apparently worth $80 just on its own

Retrosaur

Wow

Powerlord

I've been meaning to move the strange shotguns back to my main account and sell them for keys

My alt account stores most of my duplicate strange items. Most are pretty worthless, but a few of them are higher value.

It's weird, I thought the Strange Rainblower would balloon in value, since it was limited time, but it hasn't.

Sconibulus

3:18 PM

the rainblower's so pretty...

Powerlord

Well, the thing about Strange Rainblower is that it was a rare(r) drop from the Scorched Crate.

But it's only worth 1 ref right now

Maybe people just hate Pyrovision.

Ben Brocka

Epic and Mozilla bringing Unreal Engine to the web, no plugins needed

Sconibulus

I don't like how it messes with signage, but I do like it otherwise

Powerlord

Anyway, I completely forgot I had the Treasure Hat. I should cash that into keys as I try to get my hands on an Unusual Pyro hat.

I have two other items that may go with a U. Napper's Respite, which isn't that great looking a hat otherwise.

FEichinger

@BenBrocka Not good. Way too reliant on JS.

OrigamiRobot

3:21 PM

@BenBrocka I saw something about this yesterday, but I didn't read it.

Sterno

Someone explain to me this Pinny Arcade thing. Tradeable pins? Is that a thing now?

Powerlord

Shame there are no Unusual Area 451s. I think that's a great hat.

Sconibulus

does Unusual matter much?

Powerlord

@Sconibulus It's an ePeen thing. ;)

user15026

@Sterno Apparently.

Powerlord

3:24 PM

I was dumb and traded my Blizzardy Storm Dead Cone for a Blizzardy Storm Buckaroos Hat... and then promptly started playing Pyro more often than Engineer... and of course, the value of the first hat went up while the value of the second hat went down.

Aarthi

Hmm. @ravendreamer I'm surprised you didn't offer any prophetic warnings about red sharks in Vader masks....

Powerlord

(They were about the same when I traded)

OrigamiRobot

@Aarthi Maybe you unenlightened cannot hear the Golden Words.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@FEichinger I'm... quite sure that's the whole point of the exercise

FEichinger

@YiJiang'sEvilClone JS is crap, though.

Powerlord

3:26 PM

Wow, Strange Degreaser is up to 2 keys. I should move my extra over to main and trade it on the Outpost.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

What else do you expect your browser to execute

StrixVaria

@YiJiang'sEvilClone Dart.

djsmiley2k

html5

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord The last month I played TF2 was spent entirely in trade servers. I love trading.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@StrixVaria Ewww, no

FEichinger

3:27 PM

@YiJiang'sEvilClone A) HTML5, B) The point is that I absolutely hate this whole browser-based gaming bullshittery.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@djsmiley2k Yes, because we're going to write a game engine using a document markup language

Powerlord

@OrigamiRobot I don't do a lot of trading, which is why I have half a backpack full of stranges on my alt.

Granted, if Backpack Expanders ever go on sale again, I may increase my backpack size again and move my extras back.

FEichinger

@YiJiang'sEvilClone You ... have no idea what the point of HTML5 is, eh?

Powerlord

My backpack is currently 20 pages... which was the max size before the last increase.

djsmiley2k

@YiJiang'sEvilClone you've already used a langage which shouldn't ever touch graphics, so yeah sure, why not?!

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

3:29 PM

@FEichinger You could be referring to the language itself, or a set of web technology that somehow the term has come to encompass. The latter of which emphatically includes JavaScript

Powerlord

Also, the values of my Unusual Fedora has gone up. No surprise there since they discontinued it.

I wonder if I could convince someone to trade straight across for an Unusual Fez.

Whoa, wait, when did I get an Airborne Enemies Killed strange part?

FEichinger

@YiJiang'sEvilClone The need for massive accompanying f-words, a C to JS interpreter and generally browser based gaming ... It's just ridiculous.

Lazers

0

Q: How do I organize my inventory?

How do I arrange my inventory in TF2? I've noticed some people's backups have a page for stranges, a page for uniques, etc. Everytime I sort my backpack based on Quality though, when I view my Steam BP online, it still shows up as unoragnized and jumbled up.

team-fortress-2

0

Q: Can you visit this place in Deponia?

In the bonus material of Deponia, I found the following screenshot: I can't remember visiting this place. Is it in the game actually? Or did it never make it to the finished version?

deponia

Powerlord

People on my server are constantly asking for that one. I should rip them of.... er... make a fair trade for it.

FEichinger

That said, Explain to me the difference between browser-based gaming on that basis and friggin always-on DRM.

Powerlord

3:32 PM

@Lazers @Retrosaur Manual sorting.

Ben Brocka

@FEichinger Er...as opposed to what? You're not going to get pure CSS 3 Unreal Tournament 3 any time soon

FEichinger

@BenBrocka It's not supposed to exist at all! >.<

Powerlord

I think the Steam backpack view is better than it was because now the items keep the same order, but it still skips the blank spots...

Ben Brocka

@FEichinger browser based has zero to do with always online or DRM in any way at all

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@djsmiley2k I'm not sure what are you saying with 'it shouldn't touch graphics', but the whole point of the canvas API and WebGL is to work with 2D and 3D graphics in your browser

Powerlord

3:35 PM

Huh, Fez is up to 4 refined for a standard one. Glad I didn't craft my extra one.

FEichinger

@BenBrocka You have to be online for their setup to work. Any game built onto the web version of the engine will have this requirement. What is to stop anyone from exploiting this for that very purpose?

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord My backpack is worth all of 32 ref

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@FEichinger Have you heard of the HTML5 offline API?

FEichinger

Browsers aren't game clients. Stop making them ones.

SaintWacko

@OrigamiRobot How do you find that out

Powerlord

3:37 PM

@OrigamiRobot Wow, seriously?

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord I never dealt in hats.

Ben Brocka

I think you're reading this the wrong way. There's also nothing stopping people from exploiting desktop games from being always online DRM

OrigamiRobot

@SaintWacko backpack.tf/profiles/76561197978062518

Ben Brocka

And yeah, HTML5 apps can run offline

Powerlord

@OrigamiRobot Would it annoy you if I said I have at least one non-Unusual hat that is worth more than your entire backpack?

Ben Brocka

3:38 PM

And often do; lots of iOS and Android apps are in fact based on JS and HTML

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord No, I think hats are stupid.

Powerlord

Or would it annoy you if I edit the same message four times?

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord I have no speakers here, so also no.

Powerlord

@OrigamiRobot Heck, my Strange Sapper is worth more than your entire backpack, iirc.

FEichinger

@BenBrocka HTML 5 apps can. A massive JS f-word triggered from a website cannot.

fredley

3:39 PM

@BenBrocka This is very true. Webviews all the way

OrigamiRobot

@Powerlord I stopped right when the Strange Black Box came out. I do really like Stranges.

Powerlord

Ooh, I passed the 1000 mark on my Strange Sapper. I think 1200 is the highest rank!

Also, the weirdest stranges have to be the cloaking devices.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@FEichinger Uh, the code that interacts with the HTML5 API is JavaScript. And you can offline large pieces of JavaScript code, like any other asset

Powerlord

So easy to level.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

There's a lot of reasons not to code apps using HTML5 and JavaScript. The possibility of them having always on DRM is not one of them.

OrigamiRobot

3:40 PM

You can tell I stopped immediately after I got my Strange Black Box because I only have 15 kills on it.

Powerlord

My Strange Dead Ringer has 14,421 faked deaths on it.

badp

Huh.

Two weeks, two Noble Hatters' Violet.

I guess TF2 really wants me to paint some hats.

Powerlord

@badp Do it!

badp

...except that color doesn't really work with any of my hats :(

Powerlord

Actually, I need to check if certain hats and miscs are paintable.

badp

3:42 PM

I traded last week's for a decal tool and change.

Powerlord

I know the Napper's Respite is paintable... but if the Winter Wonderland Wrap and Merc's Muffler are, I could get a U. Napper's Respite and paint them all. \o/

All 3 have a similar striped theme.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

The bloody paint is still wet. I guess I have to leave it to dry overnight

Powerlord

The problem with me doing that is that I don't think I have 3 of the same paint color.

user15026

@YiJiang'sEvilClone Is it drying at all?

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

It is, just very slowly

Powerlord

3:44 PM

Oh wait, yes I do. Strangely, the same paint color @badp just mentioned.

SaintWacko

@OrigamiRobot Hm... It doesn't show any information about my backpack...

Oh

Apparently my inv is set to private

Powerlord

@badp Oh yeah, can't you put Tools on the TF2 Market?

badp

yeah I could sell it on the market

iber

hi! I have question about interpreting game lore, is it ok to post such question?

badp

it's borderline

fbueckert

3:46 PM

@iber We allow lore questions.

SaintWacko

Apparently mine is worth 23 refined

fbueckert

They're completely on-topic.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

Hey look, there's a local D&D meetup group

Powerlord

(whoops, looked at Wraith's Wrap instead)

fbueckert

Many of us don't like them, but they're allowed.

SaintWacko

3:47 PM

I don't know if I even have any good items

badp

They're on topic so long as the LORE actually covers your question

SaintWacko

It's been so long since I played

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

Also, a humanist society

iber

@fbueckert thanks :) i didn't know about after credits scene in new bioshock

badp

like, no "why is the companion cube not an icosahedron?"

iber

3:47 PM

and again it make me rethink about game

Powerlord

Yay, all 3 are paintable. I should clearly get a U. Nappers and paint it.

OrigamiRobot

I had a Strange Wrench at one point....

user15026

@badp awww. deletes her question in the middle of typing it

SaintWacko

Heh, all but one of my items is Vintage

Ben Brocka

Companion Dodecahedron > Companion Cube

fredley

3:54 PM

@BenBrocka Edgeless safety cube > Companion Dodecahedron

OrigamiRobot

BMO > All

Ullallulloo

@AshleyNunn Ask it about a Companion Truncated Cuboctahedron.

Sconibulus

BMO?

user15026

@Ullallulloo That would be the best Companion.

SaintWacko

@Sconibulus Some adventure time thing

user15026

3:55 PM

@OrigamiRobot BMO isnt even a cube.

SaintWacko

I prefer a Companion Hypercube

OrigamiRobot

<--- BMO

@AshleyNunn So? He is still better than everything else.

user15026

@OrigamiRobot He is pretty awesome, I must admit

user15026

4:07 PM

This paper is going better than it has any right to. :P

Coronus

Good morning Arqadians!

user15026

@Coronus Good morning!

user15026

Well, afternoon, for me :P

SaintWacko

@Coronus Good morning

Barely

The morning part, not the good part

badp

Nov 15 '12 at 18:34, by badp

user15026

4:21 PM

@badp Yep, my papers still look a lot like this.

user15026

Also damn it now I want pie again

badp

@AshleyNunn Are you on a train?

SaintWacko

@AshleyNunn There's a place in town that gives out free pie every Friday night

I went last Friday and had amazing key lime pie

user15026

@badp No. :(

user15026

@SaintWacko I have a jealous of your pie

user15026

4:22 PM

and your abilty to have pie

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

@badp @AshleyNunn pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen

Too bad you're not in CS

user15026

@YiJiang'sEvilClone That is awesome and horrifying

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

The paper it generates is surprisingly believable

SaintWacko

@YiJiang'sEvilClone No kidding

That's beautiful

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

> Many scholars would agree that, had it not been for active networks, the simulation of Lamport clocks might never have occurred. The notion that end-users synchronize with the investigation of Markov models is rarely outdated. A theoretical grand challenge in theory is the important unification of virtual machines and real-time theory. To what extent can web browsers be constructed to achieve this purpose?

The program even generates graphs and charts for you

SaintWacko

4:31 PM

@YiJiang'sEvilClone Yeah... That's incredible. To someone not well versed in the subject matter, it looks quite impressive

user15026

@SaintWacko Yeah, to me, it all looks like bloody magic

Sconibulus

I dunno, the sentences don't seem to flow together well enough

Jason Berkan

I don't know. The second sentence is completely meaningless.

user15026

Meanwhile, I have written a quarter of this paper in less than an hour. I am pretty proud of that.

user15026

@JasonBerkan When you don't know what most of the words actually mean, it looks decent

Jason Berkan

4:33 PM

And "A theoretical grand challenge in theory"?

Sconibulus

that sounds like something a CS student would write : () )

Jason Berkan

CS students write papers? I wrote code.

Yi Jiang's Evil Clone

Signal to noise ratio measure in pages and time measured in nanometers

user15026

@JasonBerkan as an english student, redundancy is my forte

Sconibulus

I had to write a couple papers too

user15026

4:34 PM

gotta fill those page counts

Jason Berkan

@AshleyNunn This is why I suck at papers. As a Computer Scientist, I must rip out all redundancy. My papers end up being two paragraphs long.

Sconibulus

I had that problem too...

user15026

@JasonBerkan Yeah, see I can take an idea of like two sentences and expand it (with sources and quotes) into like three pages of a paper

user15026

It is all about getting the repetition in without sounding like you are repeating

Jason Berkan

Though I did get a 95% on a history paper, which was the best thing ever.

user15026

4:36 PM

I swear that is the most important skill I have learned in university

Sterno

I didn't understand why they made us write research papers in high school and college, and I doubly don't understand it now that I'm actually gainfully employed. Such a waste of time

user15026

@Sterno I have no idea. If you arent going into academia or research, this stuff makes no sense, practically

Jason Berkan

@Sterno It's about learning to organize your thoughts and present a coherent argument. See @GraceNote.

user15026

@JasonBerkan I'd rather learn more skills that are useful rather than this one over and over and over

Sterno

@JasonBerkan I can prove to you it's not working. Exhibit A: Everyone on the Internet.

Jason Berkan

4:38 PM

@AshleyNunn Yeah, some disciplines put way more emphasis on the papers than is necessary.

Anyway, I'm freezing today. Apparently -15 is cold when you stand outside for 45 minutes waiting for a bus.

user15026

@JasonBerkan 45 minutes? o.O that is a long wait.

user15026

@JasonBerkan English is chief among them, I think/.

Jason Berkan

@AshleyNunn And it was for my kid's school bus. It never came and I ended up driving them to school.

user15026

@JasonBerkan Weird - there was no announcement of bus cancellation or anything?

Jason Berkan

They had a substitute driver (as it's the last school day before Easter holidays). The substitutes this year have been awful (as in almost always 30 minutes late).

SaintWacko

4:43 PM

@JasonBerkan Wow

Jason Berkan

My wife was tearing a strip off a transit manager when I left for work.

SaintWacko

@JasonBerkan Hehe

user15026

@JasonBerkan I don't blame her!

Lazers

0

Q: What is Nidalee's Javelin Toss damage cap?

Nidalee's Javelin Toss is an ability that deals increased damage the further you are from the enemy it hits at the time of contact. This ability is stated to deal 250% damage at maximum range, but sometimes it appears to be more than that. Is the 250% multiplier a hard cap, such that no added di...