Bay 12 Games Forum

... are they not even bothering to use the in-lore chess variation thing whose name I'm forgetting? I mean. At least with that you could play with the rules a little, tie it into existent lore and maybe actually appease fans... somewhat. But just... chess? Straight up, year 2000 chess? That is. Somewhat lazy.

I thought we were done with chess games back in like the early 2000s, late 90s. Or whenever deep blue or whatever it was came about. Why are we still making more?

... isn't that called copy and paste?

It would take an awful lot of savings from not having to pay for the driver to make up that difference.

Going by barely-any-effort research, a cab driver makes on average (which is probably a terrible measure -- median would be better but effort *shrugs*) around 25k a year (in the states). Cutting out the lowest cost of the car itself (which would be sunk regardless), with that 150k vehicle you'd be looking at a bit over five years of work to break even on the cost of a driver. Probably less,* since an automated vehicle can run 24/7, which would take two or more cab drivers to manage. Depending on vehicle lifetime and demand and whatnot that could be an incredibly attractive investment, especially if you phase them in slowly and they last long enough.

*Half it, then add a little because of low traffic times... say maybe 3, 3.5 years. Add maybe another half year to account for potential maintenance cost increases. So... four years to break even, after which is pure profit? Maybe less, considering the company itself would probably pay more than 25k per driver per year, even ignoring potential training and recruitment costs. E: Other factor would be how much the company offloads maintenance costs (such as gas) onto the driver, though. That could move the break-even point back a bit.

E2: Which is to say, from the financial angle if I were a taxi cab service owner and had the capital to invest in automated taxis, I would be looking at google et al's work incredibly intensely right now.

I really wish schizophrenia wasn't one of those things people could pass down. It's bad enough when Janet freaks out over how messed up she feels sometimes and I need to convince her that she's okay anyway, but when it's her daughter starting to show more severe symptoms? Meaning she's got it too?

Yeah that makes for a pretty rough day. On both her and me.

Yeah... yeah. That right there is pretty much the exact reason I don't want to have children -- my primary nightmare scenario in regards to parenthood, to see any kids I could have inherent the mental problems th'family tends toward. You got my feels, you three, to the extent I can give 'em. And just... best wishes dealing with it, as the days roll on. I guess we as a people are better off in regards to working with that kinda' thing these days, but it's still rough as all hells.

You're welcome to react, just, y'know, in a different thread. The point of sharing, here, is to share information people think is interesting or notable (which quite a few people have expressed interest in), that they think other people might not know of. If it's enough to trigger discussion, a thread can be spawned or it can relocate to one of the regional threads.

Merely out of spite, mind you.

If you're going to help your death and suffering along out of spite, at least do it with booze and whores. The tobacco industry doesn't need more money. Alcohol's bad enough, but at least it isn't as heavily tied into screwing over the drug laws in the states.

Or at least grow your own tobacco or something. Be somewhat less likely to kill you that way, even.

... considering the general constituency of militia groups in the states (or at least every single one I've personally had the misfortune of encountering members thereof), no, no it's not. Somewhat terrifying, but not cool.