How far Squeenix has fallen. 😒

Listen, everyone knows all configs go in /etc/etc/etc. User-configs included.

The main one that I’m aware of is that Gobo relies on a lot of symlinks to make their folder structure work. The traditional hierarchy is still there because a lot of programs have been designed around it. It’s just hidden.

Asking the real questions.

Yup, CivNet seemed the most popular for a while. Somebody also put together a mod archive for WinCiv. I also found there’s an open-source decomp project that is “playable”, but I haven’t looked at how mature that one is.

I’ve been leaning more toward UnCiv and FreeCiv21 with a Civ 1 style tileset. Think I prefer the Civ 2 ruleset though.

Yess, was playing that recently too. Love that game.

Even just resolution has an impact as well. I started playing Alpha Centauri now. I can tell that this game’s visuals are something I would have loved back when my eyes still worked properly and I’d be playing it on a 1024x768 crt monitor. But now on a 1080p laptop display and my poor sight even with glasses, I’m finding it strains my eyes a lot to play.

By contrast the low rez blocky NES-style visuals of civ 1 are much easier on my eyes, making one more reason this game is easier to get into.

I think I downloaded both of these much, but didn’t really get around to playing them. Will have to give them another try.

I noticed there is a Final Fantasy mod. I will have to try that.

This is where I played. Be sure to use an adblocker.

https://playclassic.games/games/4x-dos-games-online/play-sid-meiers-civilization-online/

Spurred by your comment here, I did a search and Alpha Centauri is presently $2.49 on Steam. Looks like I’ll need to try that now too. 🥳

When I looked at a gameplay trailer of the new one, it really didn’t feel authentic at all. It was more like looking at Destiny - Extraction Edition, with Marathon branding.

As someone who grew up playing the originals, it would be kind of nice to try this game and see what it’s like. But it’s not worth using something other than Linux to make that happen. Oh well.

For those unaware, the original Marathon games were in the same vein of 2.5D fps as the original Doom. It had a more foreboding sci fi atmosphere, and has been credited as one of the first fps games to actually weave narrative elements into the gameplay itself.

It’s also freely available and open-source these days.

Fuck cars.

There’s no easy solution, because it’s like trying to treat a cancer that has already been growing for generations and is already metastasizing. Ironically, the best bet from a wide perspective is probably a combination of supporting religious diversity (more institutions who don’t share their views), and even moreso a healthy, science-respecting educational system. These groups thrive most in rural areas with the poorest access to education. They perceive college as a threat for good reason - because their entire worldview is a hot garbage house of cards that immediately crumbles under the slightest scrutiny.

Free public college is the biggest threat to them.

People still underestimate the role of christian fundamentalism in this ongoing trainwreck. When you have a religious institution whose image of God is quite literally an abusive father, who all worship power above all else, whose church policies are to spread as far and wide as possible and systematically “train”(ie., abuse) their own children into actively seeking out every position of power possible to force their worldview onto everyone - it was only a matter of time before this all happened.

These are people who genuinely believe the war on terror is a holy war. Their entire social network is meticulously designed to draw a dichotomy between themselves (apart from the world), vs everyone else (the worldly), to isolate their own against outside views, and indoctrinate their children throughout their entire lives to vigorously proselytize on the one hand, and be ready to eliminate anyone who opposes their worldview on the other. And many of them are bloodthirsty.

I get that, I had to keep my FB when I lived in a rural area just to pay rent. Lazy.

Trying to find relevant information that’s supposed to be in a Discord server is one of the most hair-pulling aggravating experiences I’ve ever had on a computer. I mean seriously, any aspiring software developer of any kind should outright feel ashamed if they are relying on Discord for anything related to their project. Code repository sites are free, made for that purpose, and already offer everything necessary for collaboration. If communications are necessary, that’s what email is for - everyone has it already.

And yeah I also hate the over-dependence on Facebook. If a companies “site” is their fb page, they don’t get my business.

These things are successful not because they’re good. It’s because they’re easy and convenient. That’s the biggest thing we need to keep in mind when it comes to alternatives.

Yeah to be honest, as a regular user I find Matrix’s ux to ve at least somewhat less of a clusterfuck than Discord. Some things are still unintuitive, but that’s nothing rtfm shouldn’t be able to fix.

Maybe we can use this as an opportunity to use different tools for different purposes. Text chat is the easy part, evidently. The issues seem to be around voice/video/group chat on one side, and forums/wikis on the other.

What we need to recognize for one thing is how Discord makes it easy to host info repositories, but sucks at making that stuff accessible. We need a decentralized platform that makes it easy for someone to sign up and create their own forums and wikis in a user-friendly point and click manner that Discord does, but makes those same hubs optionally public and viewable for users without having to join anything.

Then for more live-oriented stuff, Matrix is already the most mature, established, closest thing to Discord we have. We just need it to be better at voice, video, screen-sharing, etc. If I understand correctly, that’s already being worked on.

Hell, maybe the former could very well be implemented on top of Matrix itself even.