Posts from the keys of Ben Leskey
Update 2026-08-09: The DDA version of this mod is discontinued, as Arcana is no longer developed for DDA. Instead, this mod is now developed for the Cataclysm: Bright Nights fork in a new repository. Cataclysm: DDA 's premier magic mod is Magiclysm, which not only adds an entire magic system and slew of useful spells, items, and locations but also alters the lore of the game to imply that…
I have ported my Arcana Technoclysm mod from Cataclysm: DDA to Cataclysm: Bright Nights . The port is now available as Arcana Technoclysm for Cataclysm: Bright Nights . Arcana Technoclysm is a mod building on top of the base Arcana mod. Arcana Technoclysm adds some new magical-technical locations and items to the game, including summonable vehicles and electrical power sources. The parent Arcana…
A collection of random tables See dndtables
I ran into JBR-6830 . When using Intellij IDEA on KDE Plasma 6 (OpenSUSE Tumbleweed), I was getting random very noticeable lag spikes. The solution was to add -Dwatch.desktop.geometry=false to the Intellij IDEA custom VM options. No more lag spikes!
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup has a large pantheon, but in the dungeon their abilities and themes are heavily combat-focused. What might they be like on the surface of the world? Ashenzari the Shackled Ashenzari is the chained god of secrets and curses. It is said that Ashenzari is eternally bound to the sky. On the surface, Ashenzari is the patron of secrets and hidden knowledge. In rural areas…
I've recently moved to a new laptop. OpenSUSE tumbleweed is still my OS of choice, and my recent experience cemented its position as my favorite Linux distro. My new device is an HP Victus 15, specs below: Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20241222 KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.4 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.9.0 Qt Version: 6.8.1 Kernel Version: 6.12.6-5.gfb072de-default (64-bit) Graphics…
I had an amazing Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup win with a great heap of luck. I played a Demonspawn Conjurer with a heap of lucky mutations and incidents, including: Three early acquirement scrolls and a potion of experience Worshipping Vehumet from a faded altar - the perfect conjurer god Mutating magic regeneration early Mutating paralyzing spells Mutating spirit shield, which 2nd level comes with…
After over ten years of Ubuntu with the i3 window manager and a host of custom scripts as my desktop OS, I've switched to using openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma. The Hardware I took two identical Dell Inspiron 5577 laptops and cobbled them together into something slightly better. I chose one unit as the base for the new machine and the other as a donor unit since it had a random power off…
I've updated my mod Arcana Technoclysm for Cataclysm: DDA with some more new features. First the changes. The vehicle whistles can now be crafted from each other, so if you find the boat whistle and really wanted the motorcycle whistle you can still craft it. The recipes are written in the Cleansing Flame book and the arcana lab journal. Also, there are some more Technoclysm item spawns in…
Through trial and error I have developed a kind of amethyst farm in Minecraft. It is neither pretty nor efficient, but it can be improved and it is easy to build. There are four parts to the system: the collection timer system, the piston matrix system, the allay collection system, and the transfer system. Each geode recieves its own copy of these systems, and the amethyst shards are transported…
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead has recieved some really nice updates to the experimental branch in recent months. My top three are: Default sort zone This one is huge! Now you can define a loot sorting zone as a catchall, where items will be sorted unless there's a more specific zone for them to go into. Previously, every time I settled down in a location or mobile base, I would have to set every…
Sci-fi, history, Mark Twain! See reading_list#2023-10-06
I'm working on a Battle for Wesnoth campaign, The Paradise Trap , set in the western sea off the coast of the Great Continent in the world of Wesnoth. The world of Wesnoth has a canonical map, but working with a nice-looking map is beyond the scope of my project for now. Fortunately for me, Wesnoth's game map editor creates nice enough maps and has an automatable screenshot export…
I got a win playing an Armataur Shapeshifter of Okawaru in the Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup roguelike. This was my first Armataur win, as well as my first win and first real time playing the new shapeshifter background, which is replacing the old transmutations magic school. Unlike with the old transmutations school, this character didn't have to cast spells at all, and I could focus on being a…
See https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/66639