#typical bethesda

[zermbie-dergon]

I-I just wanted to take a nap and my whole crew is fighting over MY bed even though they have perfectly good ones downstairs, smh

[aemiron-main]

why is he posed like a dead oblivion npc

[wafflepopbeerus]

when they ask you "how you feel today?" But you just feel

[nukacourier]

Me when I'm having fun playing fo4 and remember all the sick ass concept art and cool scrapped ideas and now I'm mourning the loss of a game that will never exist

[beardedmrbean]

[bbbbbbbbbbruce]

do whtvr. make miraak into this handsome squidward guy behind the mask. but always to me he will be bald, and have a receding hairline old man style. dgaf

[l0ne-wanderer216]

stumbled upon a slightly active fallout 3 forum &...by god do they just hate it

[major-marjoram]

I have tried like a hundred times to set up this cargo link to fulfill this quest, why does it seem like nothing is happening

[artbyblastweave]

A Fallout lore youtube video with 314 views just informed me of Shalebridge, a location in Fallout 3 with an unmarked quest to defend a colony of small, friendly ants from an invading colony of the typical murderous ants found throughout the rest of the game. You can also use a further science/medicine check to boost the growth of the friendly ant colony to ensure their future success; in exchange, the ants will allow you to harvest a respawning bounty of ant nectar for the remainder of the game. Also noteworthy is that the friendly ant colony is denoted by extensive fungal growth around the entrance, in what I suspect is a nod to ant-fungus mutualism.

Anyway I can't help but interpret this as the eventual creation myth of a sentient FEV-induced mutant-ant civilization that, a hundred or so years down the line, will be telling stories about a benevolent giant who strode forth to smite their enemies in their hour of greatest need, before delivering unto them the mana of the old gods, Prometheus style. In this way and in many others Bethesda Fallout is consistently best at the margins

[elderscrollsconceptart]

TES fans at the next Bethesda conference:

"Ugh I bet Todd is just gonna tell his typical lies about how good the Oblivion remake is gonna be 🤧😴"

>Wes Johnson walks on stage in full Sheogorath costume

Tes fans:

[scarlethyena]

I often see people bring up the fact that Cyrodiil was described as a jungle in earlier entries to the series and how they retconned it into the more temperate environment we see in Oblivion. And tbh I have mixed feelings on that. Because on the one hand, I can understand people's disappointment in not seeing the stranger aspects of Tamriel that we got in Morrowind (and in general, I def agree that Bethesda doesn't always do the best job of representing the lore in gameplay). But on the other hand, I'm going to be real, Cyrodiil being a jungle just doesn't make sense to me. Because it's supposed to be the heartland of the empire, and the empire is very clearly meant to be fantasy Romans, so why would their homeland be a dense jungle? Wouldn't the temperate, more Mediterranean climate, be more fitting for them? Not saying that to discount the idea, it's certainly different and it would've been interesting to see how they developed that further if they had continued down that particular path. I'm just saying that it seemed like an odd choice to start with and the Cyrodiil we saw in Oblivion feels more appropriate for the imperial home country. Overall tho, I think it's worth keeping in mind that this series is full of retcons. A lot of aspects of Tamriel looked quite different in the earliest games like Arena and Daggerfall, and really it took some time before the lore started to solidify a little more (I know they gave in-universe justifications for some of these changes, but still).

That said, I do think a fantasy game taking place in a tropical climate would be really interesting and something quite different from the standard fantasy we see that typically pulls from medieval Europe and thus has a comparable climate. That's one thing I greatly appreciate about Morrowind: it's different. The environment is alien, and you can make several comparisons with Dunmer culture, but I think it's safe to say that medieval Europe wasn't among their sources of inspiration. It's for this very reason that I would fucking kill for an Elder Scrolls game that takes place in Elsweyr or maybe Black Marsh. I've heard that the next one (may we see it released in our lifetimes) will be in Hammerfell, but that could be interesting in it's own right. Especially given what we're told about Hammerfell's political situation in Skyrim.

Also while I'm on topic, the Project Cyrodiil mod for Morrowind is fucking amazing, I recommend giving it a look!

[zooliminology]

Now, I'm assuming when you mention a clipping pen, is what you are talking about an actual pen? Like, that writes, or is it a specific utensil that resembles a pen, but isn't and never was an actual writing utensil?

Never was a pen as far as I'm aware. And truth be told, only Alpha knows how they work fully. They are called clipping pens because they look like and are the size of typical clicking ball point office pens. You even click the top to... um... open a hole? I don't know much about the tech other than you sink into the floor like you're a Bethesda character and then you find yourself in the far plane...

I think you drop from the sky? I'm not sure. I haven't clipped before.... I'm scared someone will lock my ass in hospice lmao

-kappa

[mariacallous]

Last month, the Trump administration placed a $1 spending limit on most government-issued credit cards that federal employees use to cover travel and work expenses. The impacts are already widely felt.

At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, scientists aren’t able to order equipment used to repair ships and radars. At the Food and Drug Administration, laboratories are experiencing delays in ordering basic supplies. At the National Park Service, employees are canceling trips to oversee crucial maintenance work. And at the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Aviation Administration, employees worry that mission-critical projects could be stalled. In many cases, employees are already unable to carry out the basic functions of their job.

“The longer this disruption lasts, the more the system will break,” says a USDA official who was granted anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media about the looming crisis.

A researcher at the National Institutes of Health who tests new vaccines and treatments in rodents says he has had to put experiments on hold; his lab is not able to get certain necessary materials, such as antibodies, which are needed to assess immune response. “We have animals here that are aging that will pretty soon be too old to work with,” says the researcher, who requested anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the agency. Young mice and rats that are 6 to 8 weeks old are typically used for drug and vaccine studies, but some of the animals in their lab have now aged out of that window and may have to be euthanized.

They say NIH workers have been using internal listservs to ask for reagents and lab equipment from other buildings or institutions to try to compensate for shortages, but they’re not always able to track down what they need. The NIH is made up of 27 institutes and centers, and its Bethesda, Maryland, campus is spread across more than 75 buildings. “Sometimes you need something that's really niche, and you're just not going to find it from someone else on campus,” they say.

The change comes as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to hunt for alleged examples of waste across the federal government. Late last month, DOGE announced that it was working to “simplify” the government’s largest credit card program, which issues GSA SmartPay travel and purchase cards for federal employees. Last Wednesday, the agency claimed 24,000 cards had been deactivated.

The credit card program allows federal workers to bypass the typical procurement process required to buy goods and services. A 2002 report from the Department of Commerce said that, “by avoiding the formal procurement process, GSA estimates the annual savings to be $1.2 billion.” It also enables federal employees to avoid paying sales tax on expenses that the government is exempt from.

At the FDA, labs that analyze samples to ensure that food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics are safe and meet regulatory standards are already facing shortages. "While we are always acutely aware of when Congress’ funding is going to run out, we are able to order supplies to keep things going in the lab. This abrupt ending felt like the rug was being pulled out from under us," says an employee at the FDA who requested anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak with the media.

The employee recently placed an order for pipette tips, an essential laboratory supply, but found that order was put on hold. "Now we are running out, asking colleagues at other offices to share what they might not be using,” they told WIRED.

In addition, workers say FDA labs now have to go through a lengthy process to order liquid nitrogen, which is used to keep ultra-cold freezers running. These freezers preserve samples of cells and other biological material that reflect years, and sometimes decades, of research. Delays in getting liquid nitrogen tanks could destroy that material. Previously, new tanks could usually be acquired the same day as putting in a request. Now, it takes a week or so to receive a tank after initiating a request.

An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency says her facility is not able to place regular orders of liquid nitrogen at the moment. “We have dozens of these freezers full of important environmental samples that are imminently at risk of being lost because we can no longer get our regular shipments of liquid nitrogen,” says the employee, who requested anonymity. These samples are used as part of research on detection and remediation methods for chemicals such as PFAS, which are found in many products and break down very slowly over time.

“Scientists are being forced to jerry-rig the connection points on these freezers to accept pressures of liquid nitrogen they were not designed to handle,” the employee says. “Divisions are resorting to bartering with each other to obtain needed items.”

The FDA and EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

The credit card freeze also means that federal researchers who were working on scientific manuscripts can’t pay journal fees, meaning they can’t submit their work to certain journals for publication.

An employee at a federal forensics lab told WIRED that spending limits mean the lab is no longer able to pay to ship evidence back to agents, effectively halting its ability to do casework. Before a case goes to trial, defendants have the right to access and review evidence that the prosecution intends to use against them, which includes access to the evidence in their case. Defendants are able to send that evidence to an outside lab for analysis if they choose. “Cases can’t progress until we return the evidence,” says the forensics lab worker, who asked to remain anonymous. “I basically can’t do my job right now.”

NIH employees were told that travel cards could not be used at all for 30 days, forcing scientists to cancel plans to attend a major infectious disease conference next week. USDA employees at the Pest Identification Technology Laboratory have stockpiled reagents used for molecular tests in advance of the spending limits, according to the USDA official.

FAA employees who travel to work on and test aviation systems worry the credit card freeze will prevent them from completing their projects. “We are allowed to use our personal cards in emergencies but none of us trust them to pay us back now,” says one employee.

The impacts have hit the National Park Service as well. One employee was poised to go on a trip to oversee road maintenance at a national monument when the change went into effect on February 20. “Unless I want to pay for it myself, I can’t go. I can’t pay for my hotel, my rental car, fuel for the car. Now I can’t carry out the mission,” the employee says. “Today, instead of focusing on other work, I’m focused on three different contingencies on how to handle this. Do I go? Do I call my engineering team and tell them to reschedule? And if so, when? The project is on an indefinite hold.”

A memo written to staff at the National Park Service specified that “all travel that is NOT related to national security, public safety, or immigration enforcement should be canceled if it begins on Wednesday, February 26, through the end of March 2025.” A long-term decision on the travel policy, it said, will come “at a later date.” Some NPS staffers were able to travel in February despite not getting official clearance. They have now been told no travel will be allowed in March. To date, roughly 75 trips have been canceled or rescheduled, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The National Park Service did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

Some government employees say they were given a warning prior to the change being announced on February 20. “We went out and bought cases and cases of toilet paper the night before,” another current employee at the National Park Service says. “There’s a general acknowledgement that things are going to break.”

That employee works in the Pacific West Region, which manages federal land in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada, as well as parks in Arizona, Montana, Guam, and American Samoa. While the GSA did allow for the possibility of exceptions to the clamp-down, the employee claims there are only four purchase cards with spending limits above $1 available for the entire region.

Some of these parks pay for services like internet and wireless on purchase cards—leaving staffers wondering if their work devices could soon be cut off. “Before someone can fix a bathroom a work order has to be issued,” the current employee explains. “That happens electronically. Like any business, we rely on email, Teams, and chat to get things done.”

The spending limits reflect Musk’s belief in zero-based budgeting. After he purchased Twitter, he slashed the budget to zero and forced employees to justify every expense. He also froze people’s corporate credit cards.

“With the Twitter pausing of payments, at some point we were in a meeting at 1 am on a Saturday, and it was like, ‘Hey, let's turn the credit cards off to see what bounces, and what happens,’" explained angel investor Jason Calacanis on the All In podcast in February. (Calacanis was part of Musk’s transition team at Twitter.) “And of course, we started getting calls ... The people who come first, they're probably the ones who are in on the biggest grift.”

Employees see it a different way. “There are so many controls in place to make sure fraud doesn’t happen,” alleges the current NPS staffer. “I honestly believe the only fraud occurring is being committed by Musk, [Russell] Vought, and [Donald] Trump.”

[shuunnico]

You like rpgs. Do you recommend any games like baldurs gate 3?

Absolutely. I'll assume you mean CRPGs and not RPGs in general.

Computer Roleplaying Games (CRPGs) refers to a style and genre of game that BG3 follows. Some have started calling CRPGs "Classic RPGs" instead. CRPGs are typically identified by an isometric, top down view style, a heavy focus on story and exploration.

I'm going to split my list it three main categories based on accessibility factors. These factors include the amount of reading involved, the depth of mechanics and the level of abstraction/math required.

Easy Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023 - Larian Studios. The current gold star for easy entry CRPGs. Exceptional graphics, every character voice acted, very little reading and fairly straightforward mechanics and concepts.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 DE- 2017 - Larian Studios. This is basically a less polished, more complex version of BG3 and made by the same studio.

Disco Elysium, Final Cut - 2019 - ZA/UM. Disco Elysium is a detective/social focus game that dives into heavy narrative concepts. Failing rolls is just as viable for the story as succeeding them, making the game's mechanics take a backseat to story. However, there is a lot of reading and that may be a barrier to entry.

Tyranny - 2016 - Obsidian Entertainment. A game about being evil, it's mechanically pretty simple, but there's a fair bit of jank due to it's low budget, and the game ends on a cliffhanger, but it's story is very solid.

Mid Entry Level

Wasteland 3 - 2020 - inExile Entertainment. The long awaited third installment of the Wasteland franchise and significantly less complex than its predecessors. Post apocalyptic, frozen Colorado, grim reality and goofy ideas. This is the franchise that originally inspired Fallout.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall DC/ Shadowrun: Hong Kong EE - 2014/2015 - Harebrained Schemes. Set in the Fantasy/Cyberpunk hybrid setting of Shadowrun. Fair bit of reading, but the game's mechanics are relatively easy to grasp and don't require a lot of math. Always play Dragonfall before Hong Kong.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - 2018 - Obsidian Entertainment. A unique setting, exploring a fictional parallel to the age of piracy. Very wordy (but a lot is voice acted), with a lot of world building, but well worth engaging with. The first game, Pillars of Eternity, is less accessible, but still good.

Kingmaker/Wrath of the Righteous/Rogue Trader - 2020/2022/2023 - Owlcat Games. Owlcat adapts existing systems into CRPGs, like how BG3 is an adaption of DnD 5e. Do not be fooled, these games are where you start hitting a lot of complexity, a lot of math and a lot potential to damage your playthroughs by accident. This is where things start to get difficult.

Difficult Entry Level

Baldur's Gate 1/2 - Bioware - 1998/2000. The prequels to BG3, these games use an older, much more complex version of DnD's rules. Be prepared for a lot of reading and complex mechanics, but you'll be rewarded with some amazing storytelling.

Planescape Torment - Interplay - 1999. Another game using DnD's older mechanics, Planescape is a completely different beast from BG3. Many consider this series mechanically inferior to the Baldur's Gate franchise, but with better storytelling and world building to compensate.

Fallout 1/2 - 1997/1998 - Interplay/Black Isle. One of the most widely known game franchises started as an isometric CRPG. Universally considered more complex, rewarding and deeper than the Bethesda portion of the franchise, you'll need some experience to get into them, but you'll be happy you did.

Games I haven't played but I've heard good things of:

Wasteland 2, DC - 2015 - inExile

Torment: Tides Of Numenera - 2017 - inExile

Neverwinter Nights - 2002 - Bioware

Arcanum - 2001 - Troika Games

Ultima 7 Part 1/Part 2 - 1992/1993 - Origin Systems

Icewind Dale - 2000 - Black Isle Studio

[shithowdy]

just binged the fallout show and the result was me spending over an hour trying to painstakingly map the insane travel directions of the main characters based on landmarks and mountain/skyline directions despite all three of these things being sets/CGI and therefore completely unreliable.

-starts obviously in santa monica -southeast to LAX area, (filly= fox hill instead of landfill?) then through Inglewood -gulper found at exit 12a Lankershim. Typical NoHo encounter. -back south to super duper via hollywood, which has westin bonaventure building visible behind it and large crater nearby. Crater seems more southwest though, so maybe not the same one in the shot. -only visible crater from griffith is this one, just southeast of observatory. rip echo park. -i found the one truss bridge in LA over the river and it's there by downtown. possible in this universe there are more train bridges, though. -crossed to area with hospital-- USC Health labs are in this area, could be Hawthorne facility and vault 4 location in this universe. -tracks followed south to shady sands. I do not remember why they went this way but by skyline, mountains, redcars and obscurity from griffith shady sands HAS to be LA historic district -kpss radio at "base of Hollywood Hills", chose area that was just a small mound.

so, approximately the same amount of erratic back-and-forth travel as an actual bethesda game. God bless.

gamers who want to lecture or otherwise bitch about the shady sands location retcon in my activity, please check this out first.

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Okay wait, this is so fucking funny to me.

K. So, stay with me on this one: Wally is dealing with people mysteriously floating away in bubbles that freeze people in time and also dealing with Grodd's army of time traveling Gorillas and also dealing with a bunch of sentient Gods and also dealing with a homicidal Bethesda glitch (aka Porcupine Man Part Two: This Time he's a 15 y/o named Chad) and also dealing with a delusional homicidal Bethesda glitch (aka the Folded Man) WHILE the speedforce is also glitching the fuck out and messing with his powers ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Typical day in Central City, amiright?

Alright so all of this is going on and Wally is handling it, but no big deal I hear you say, there's like 50 speedsters. Wally has enough family members to handle this whole situation no problem.

Here's the fucking hilarious part. Okay, so, Jay? On family leave. Irey, Jai, Wade and Judy? Not cleared for active field work.

But still, there's always Wally's Kid Flash, his adopted brother and biological cousin, Ace West and Avery Ho, the pseudo sister of the Flash family and the biggest threat to Wally's title of 'Barry's favorite child' since... ever. Surely Wally can rely on them to-

Nope. Nevermind. They decided to do a different thing with Mas y Menos. Cool. Cool cool cool cool cool.

Well. Okay. No problem.

We can always count on Barry Allen!

I mean, Barry is retired but he sees the massive fucked up hole in reality that Wally is trying to fix (did I forget to mention that part? Yeah that's a thing as well), so obviously he would go help W-

Nope! Okay! Barry locked himself in his room and is sleeping through this apparently.

But that's cool because Bart is there! Bart showed up to help!

Annnnnnnnd they left him there. Okay alright. Cool. Cool. It's so cool. Because Wally called Max and Max is there and two speedsters are better than one and-

OKAY HOLY FUCK YOU GUYS

DC says that Wally is forbidden from having any help and is willing to maintain that rule at any fucking cost apparently