Solar eclipse in the UK:

[Bikerdude]

So who is gonna be outside on friday @ 9:45 AM? It starts @ around 7:40 and finishes @ 10:20

 

 

 

[Airship Ballet]

What's that "outside" you mentioned?

[Goldwell]

What's that "outside" you mentioned?

 

[Airship Ballet]

" No monthly fees" my ass.

[OrbWeaver]

REALITY - The new MMO

 

Features

1. Randomised starting level. You may start at level 1, but others will start at level 10,000,000 as an accident of birth. In most cases you will never, ever be able to catch up to them.
2. No magic powers, spells or equipment. Ever.
3. Permadeath is mandatory, often slow and painful, and may happen at any time without warning.
4. The rules of the game can be modified arbitrarily by those of level 500,000 or higher. This may include granting themselves the power to take your gold, equipment or XP any time they feel like it. If you don't like it, you are free to self-invoke the permadeath feature.
5. No choice of character class, and no respecs. You get what you're given. If you don't like it, you are free to self-invoke the permadeath feature.
6. Despite being theoretically free to invoke the permadeath feature, the game will do its utmost to make it as difficult as possible. You are a worthless minion, and you leave when we say so.
7. XP and gold drains constantly from your character. If you stop playing for any reason, you will start sliding backwards. To avoid this, make sure you grind, and grind, and grind, and grind... The only "reward" is staying the same place.
8. Fuck you.

[Airship Ballet]

Nihilist class OP, completely negates all challenge of the game.

[Stepan1010]

Reality 1.1 Patch Notes:

1. Players will no longer have a choice of starting zone. Starting zone will be randomly determined by level.

2. Players with a low starting level will now be more likely to be inserted into zones with ongoing PVP.

3. Players now have the option to join guilds. Players who wish to speculate as to the identity and/or existence of The Developer(s) of Reality™ should join

these guilds. Any members of guilds that participate in PVP will be awarded "Developer Points". These points may or may not hold any value.

4. Tutorials of how to play Reality™ will be restricted based on level and starting zone but may also be purchased for significant quantities of in-game gold.

5. A new partner program with Walmart™ will allow players of Reality™ to purchase in-game grey loot items at a large discount.

6. Players of lower levels in certain starting zones will now be required to grind all day for grey loot items. Failure to meet the quota of grey loot items

will result in gold and XP penalties for that player and his/her family.

7. The agnostic class has been nerfed for not participating in speculation as to the identity and/or existence of The Developer(s) of Reality™. Penalties include -5 to the "running for political office" skill.

8. The policy of "Fuck you" is still in place. Players of all levels should be aware of this policy as it will be strictly enforced (especially for players of

lower levels).

In all seriousness, that eclipse is beautiful btw. At least Reality™ has some good graphics.

[Destined]

I will watch it here in Bavaria. Hope there is something to see... I missed the one in 1999, because I was on vacation on Malta

[SeriousToni]

Do you have goggles? They were completely sold out in Thuringia...

 

I might use the camera instead...

[Bikerdude]

Im gonna see if my little lumix will take a shot and or my phone.

[Destined]

No, do not have any goggles either. I will see, what I can do... Most likely phone.

[SeriousToni]

Lol when I read this... Tomorrow the whole TDM community in Europe will be blind past midday...

 

[Bikerdude]

Well back on topic, it looks like the weather is obscuring any chance I might have had to see the eclipse :-/

[esme]

Just scored a some brownie points by knocking up a couple of pinhole cameras to watch the eclipse with :smugbert:

 

Would have been a lot more had we not had solid cloud cover but I'll take what I can get

 

And we can use them when we do have some sun, probably be 10 minutes in June sometime

 

And as I look out of the window, the skies are, of course, clearing

Edited March 20, 2015 by esme

[Destined]

We had a clear sky, but sadly only a partial eclipse (about one third, I would say). Still had no goggles, but another one had some foil, that was sufficient to at least see thorugh for a short period before the eyes began to hurt. Phone did not work, sun was still too bright

[SeriousToni]

Phone didn't work for me either, I tried to look inside but it was too bright to see anything. Still not feeling blind luckily

We had around 50% sun covering and clear sky ... but no goggles

Edited March 20, 2015 by SeriousToni

[SteveL]

It was clear here. Outside it didn't look particularly dim, what with the light still casting hard shadows and a warm glow on surfaces. It was very noticeably dim indoors, given the obvious sunlight. My equipment was just two sheets of printer paper and a pin, but that was enough to see clearly we got about 90% coverage.

[OrbWeaver]

I read somewhere that you need over 96% coverage of the sun before you notice any visible dimming. I guess the sun is just so bright that even 5% of it provides enough light for our eyes to perceive normal daylight.

[Bikerdude]

I read somewhere that you need over 96% coverage of the sun before you notice any visible dimming. I guess the sun is just so bright that even 5% of it provides enough light for our eyes to perceive normal daylight.

Exactly, we have idiotic and poorly educated news outlets saying parts of the UK would be plunged into darkness and/or we might have power cuts and the like. How did these fuckwits manage to get a job in journalism and then keep said job with such a poor grasp of the basic facts?! Jesus, even a simple internet search would have given them the fact's their addled brains were clearly missing.

[gnartsch]

Those journalists are neither idiodic nor poorly educated.

Not sure what newspaper you are referring to, but the same exists all over the world.

The german variant would be the 'BiLD'.

They don't sell content, they sell HEADLINES. The more blatant they are, the better the profit it seems.

However, I wonder who is buying that sort of crap.

 

We had about 75% and clear sky.

However, one would not have noticed all that much, except that it got quite cold.

It got just a little bit darker than usual, but that was almost beyond notice.

Withoiut googles on would not have seen anything.

The total eclipse in 1999 was way better. It was dark as hell !

Edited March 20, 2015 by gnartsch

[Melan]

 

REALITY - The new MMO

 

Reminds me of the great, underappreciated Freebase: Live Action Role Playing in THE WORLD OF REALITY. It was published as an insert in Buttery Wholesomeness, the first and only supplement to the HōL roleplaying game. Also, it was written by none other than later Thief superstar Daniel Thron.

 

INTRODUCTION

Most of you reading these rules are familiar with role playing; your older brother was "into" it in high school, some of your friends said they "did" it in their basement when their parents were away on vacation in Chippawa Falls, your Uncle Jerry got "sentenced to twenty with no parole" for it a couple of years back, or perhaps you've been tempted by the magazines and odd paraphernalia on the dust-blanketed shelves of a comic book store. You've even seen "gamers" in school, standing in strange cabalistic knots in the corner of the lunchroom, chirping giddily about the mysteries of "petrification saves." Watching them, you were frightened, disgusted, yet secretly longing to understand, if only to find out what "Thieves Cant" was.

Well, no longer need you live in fear of becoming a universally loathed, shambling social pariah. Now you may at last feel free to join them, because not only has gaming recently achieved astonishing new heights of popularity, there is one game almost everybody plays: FREEBASE.

Who do we mean by "everybody"? We mean everybody. Your friends. Your family. The postman. Look in the next room. See your mom there? She's playing. Do you think she'd let you live here for three years past when you quit college if she wasn't waiting for you to figure it out? Think about it. We've all been waiting for you. Join us. We can't play without you.

---

HOW TO BEGIN

We will start play tomorrow morning, so put on a pot of coffee, stay up and read these rules again and again. It is very important that you memorize every word because any rules infraction will result in your being asked to leave the game. You will not be given another copy. When you have adequately dedicated the following to memory, set your alarm for 7:45 EST, swallow the pills enclosed with this pamphlet, and get some sleep. When you wake up, you will be in the world of FREEBASE -- you may notice the remarkable similarity to your own world, but don't be alarmed,

just enjoy. Don't pack anything but what you can stuff in your pockets (suggestions for first level equipment will be given later) and you'll be ready to begin. Now, to signify to other players that yu have joined the game, touch a match to this booklet and set fire to the drapes, couch, and rug (creative players wake extra early to venture into their basement for proper

accelerants). Head out the door, and you're on your way (don't worry about waking your family -- remember, they're in on this too, and will have prepared in advance). Now when you see other incidents of "arson", you can rejoice in knowing that it is just another player entering the adventurous and fun filled world of FREEBASE!! Also, make sure this booklet burns completely,

especially this company's return address.

(...)

EXPERIENCE POINTS

Through the battle-scars you receive during play, you will also accumulate experience; that is, you will get better at what you do. To rate this, FB uses Expeience Points, or "XPs." These may be spent on new equipment, magical components, or to achieve the next "level" (q.v.). Some players who keep "Cover Jobs" receive XPs from their GM (General Manager) on a weekly basis in the form of a "Paycheck", but the more common form of acquisition is through combat. If you defeat a Player or Non-Player in combat, his XPs are now rightfully yours. This is not the only option, however. Often, XPs can be found relatively unguarded in soda machines and registers.

Other popular methods: "Rolling Drunks", "Jacking Tires", and "shooting the Wad on the Trifecta"

(see the Tips section for more ideas).

 

And so on and so forth.

[Bikerdude]

Those journalists are neither idiodic nor poorly educated.

Poorly educated maybe, but idiotic all the way. Even more so if they are publishing deliberately false and misleading info just to get sales.

[Airship Ballet]

"Ohhhh, those damn news outlets and their clickbait. I have no idea what keeps directing people to read their articles, like this article here for example. Read this and tell me if you can see any reason as to why they'd receive traffic."

[SeriousToni]

Exactly, we have idiotic and poorly educated news outlets saying parts of the UK would be plunged into darkness and/or we might have power cuts and the like.

 

I guess in times of peace in europe the people need something that gets up their minds... It was like a cloudy day when the moon tried to hide the sun, but already days before the news started about crying out loud that the power network will break and we need the old power plants to help out... It was like a call for the guys who say "Nooo we don't need renewable energies - let's stick to raping good old mother earth!" I don't know why ... maybe "lobbyism" is the word...?

 

Whatever - I don't like the "american touch" the european news get these days...

[161803398874989]

Not poorly educated maybe, but idiotic all the way. Even more so if they are publishing deliberately false and misleading info just to get sales.

How is that idiotic if your goal is making money? If it works, it works. And it works, for reasons outlined in the this video: