OT: The Daily Thread

RL: month end closing is about done. 1 more day.

D2: working on a restart.

OVG: also working on the unova go research. Waiting on go fest tickets for this summer since it’s remote.....
 
RL: our little guy was born a little over a week ago now. Baby and mom are doing well. Wondering what it felt like to be well rested ;)

D2: With RFL wrapped up I haven't played much due to RL (see above :p) What little time I get is very broken up...not many play sessions for questing chars...will have to set up some pindle/council/etc runs that I can do a few quick here and there

OVG: Ultima Online Renaissance - mostly just macro a couple of chars since that doesn't take active attention. Will allow me to dabble in short breaks as well.

What can I say...all of my gaming is 20+ year old games.

Thank you for all the congrats and well wishes!
Congratulations!!! You will be fully rested again in maybe 3 or 4 years 😃

Seriously, huge change in your life! It will be great!!
 
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RL: our little guy was born a little over a week ago now. Baby and mom are doing well. Wondering what it felt like to be well rested ;)

Congrats! I suggest pumping STR and DEX early to get him doing things other than eating, sleeping and pooping. Once he hits lvl 12 (months) or so, youre gonna want to start putting all points into VIT. He is going to be taking a lot of damage once he starts walking. Dont assign any points to NRG until he reaches Act 2 (preschool). What kind of skill point placement do you have planned?
 
Thanks Trim (are you the artist formerly known as TRM or what was your forum name?).
Yep, that's me! Technically I was TheReadMenace back in the day, but after someone shortened it to the acronym TRM that's how I started signing off my posts and how most of the oldies now remember me. Then later in life when John Remedy & Pijus / magpiemcgraw and I were playing a handful of random games together, one of them called me Trim which I've adopted as my gaming moniker ever since.

RL: Warm WFH here in Texas, too. My air conditioner has been broken since fall of last year, so most of the time I'm sweating buckets. I'm lucky that it's June in Texas and hasn't gotten above 90-ish degrees (32 C) more than a couple times so far, so it could be worse. But it's also very dumb... all I'd have to do is clean my apartment well enough to let some maintenance dude in to address it, but I'm too tired and lazy to live in comfort. It's probably contributing to my poor sleep schedule as of late, too. For the first time in... a long time, I did some weight lifting during a slow stretch of work on Tuesday, and two days later my arms are still very sore. May have overdone it.

D2: Some MP with John Remedy on Tuesday, too. I think we found a Vex and a Lo, the Lo being the second one within maybe three sessions? Item drops are usually pretty terrible, but our rune luck has been tremendous. Can't complain!

OVG: Started watching Final Fantasy XV let's plays on youtube while working, and it's multiple let's plays because I can't find anyone's presentation style that I like. I'm becoming less and less interested in most people who do let's plays or stream games because they're awkward nerds trying SO HARD to be entertaining and engage with their community when all I really care about is the game itself. And it's making me want to play the game. Considering streaming it [among other games] only so that I have a documented play through of my own that I can review whenever I want to watch a let's play of it down the line. I'm not interested in doing it regularly, making money, building a fan base, or being an entertainer -- I'd make my own personal sparse commentary to explain my decisions and give genuine reactions to stuff I see on screen, but my role would mostly consist of being the facilitator of making each game the main star. In order to do so, I'd have to get the air conditioner fixed. Hard to make watchable videos when there's a box fan blowing directly on me & my microphone the entire time.
 
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@CaseyJones
Best wishes to you all! Tiring kids jokes aside, even the small ones have their own personality after all and its not totally out of the question that you get calmer periods where the little one sleeps a lot.

It's some time since I logged on and I can't change the forum style any more. Is that removed or is it some sort of locked content now, anyone know that?
 
RL: Work is now finished for the week, may go for a walk with the family this afternoon. The lake is opening up for swimming again soon but only a 400m course, which is a bit disappointing. Better than not swimming at all though.

D2: I'm currently questing in A3 with my final character in my 2h Sword Sept 3. Really enjoying the play, I will keep it spoiler free until the Pat Thread.

OVG: I mentioned it a few times in the old forums daily but it was finally finished a week or so ago - Raspberry Pi based games console, loaded up with over 8000 games from Pong & PacMan up until SNES & Megadrive. It is Ready Player One themed as I watched the movie with my youngest daughter and she was asking me about the games and 80s references in it. She has been beating me at Marvel vs Strretfighter ever since.

Some cosmetic work still to be done with the software front end, but it all works. I was going to make a bartop with integrated monitor, but this is easier to store. I'm still thinking about doing a bartop later though, it was fun making it.

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RL: Thinking about another home project here, but may be in way over my head.. Looking for some counsel from any craftsmen/women out there.
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So, I want to build my girl a playhouse (on the ground), or possibly a tree house and I came across this concept of a suspended structure. I don't have a lot of trees on my property that I can work with. But, I gave it a good survey and found a group that I think may be suitable.
treehouse.jpg
Not sure if you can follow my epic Microsoft Paint skills or not? But, that is the basic size/formation of the trees I am thinking of using. With the smallest tree being the farthest away, I figure that I can just place the structure as close to the bigger trees as possible, keeping the center of gravity nearer to that end. Here is the outline of what I have in mind:
  1. Strap the trees together (red) - probably using heavy duty ratcheting tie downs, they come up to 3" (7.6cm) in width and hold several thousand lbs/kg. I am not sure what the best way to do this might be? Pull them as tight as possible (like red lines in the epic diagram), or have them hanging down at an angle from above (see original picture). Also, should I just arrange them in a triangle? Or have them all come together in one central point (near the center of gravity)?
  2. Attach a platform (brown) - Was planning on using several wooden pallets, painted and joined together. However, I could also get plastic pallets which would be lighter, but possibly more difficult to link together. Any suggestions?
  3. Build a hand railing (blue) - obviously more vertical slats than in the drawing, but you get the idea.
  4. Attach some type of roof - this is going to be in a wooded area. So, while it will already be in the shade, there is always rain, and the risk of falling branches. Not sure how "heavy duty" I want to make this yet. We have corrugated plastic sheets here in the US that are often used as roofing for minor structures. That would be nice and light, just not sure how it would hold up with a branch plummeting down from 50ft up in the air.. I don't think I want to go the full plywood and shingles route though. Any advice on this?
  5. Safety netting (not shown) - I have a 6ft (2m) by 40ft (12.2m) net which I plan to wrap around the entire structure to prevent kiddos from trying to climb over the railing.. leaving a bit of room for a gate/door and a ladder to get up and down.
 
Looks like an awesome project -- if I were the kid receiving ownership of such a location, I'd feel super lucky!

I'm no engineer, so no real useful comments from me. But I will say about this:
Attach a platform (brown) - Was planning on using several wooden pallets, painted and joined together. However, I could also get plastic pallets which would be lighter, but possibly more difficult to link together. Any suggestions?
I've seen wooden pallets exposed to outdoor conditions that have rotted away at surprising rapidity. Upkeep could be a real pain, especially if it's not all easily accessible. But then, I have no idea how those plastic ones will hold up in inclement weather. Your location might not have the coldest winters on record. But if they have a tendency to crack or snap at certain temperatures or when exposed to icy conditions, that could get unsafe real quick. If I were me, I'd probably do some research on their resiliency.

RL: Work, eat, sleep weird disjointed hours. It's later than normal, but Texas is finally getting warm. Work from home has its perks -- no need to ever be out in the sun! #VampireLife

D2: Mostly just MP with John Remedy, as it has been for a couple months. Filled some holes in the current grail, including the Schaefer's I posted in the IFT. And tonight JR took home a Jah we found in WSK2, so it's been a really good stretch this past week.

OVG: Since my last post, I've put maybe nine hours into a yet another replay FFXV. I chose not to level up at all until I finished every quest & monster hunt available in the first chapter, so there were a couple hectic fights against some comparatively strong optional opponents. The game needs more challenge anyway. Barely out of the tutorial area of the game so far, but it's got a great opener and it's always fun to play. Hope I stick with it... maybe this time I'll tackle all the untouched end-game fights like I always intend to do, but that grind to lvl 120 is a real time suck.
 
RL: On Monday i got a call from the painters i arranged to paint the outside of my house. They were supposed to do this in September, but asked if they could start the next day. With me working from home, i'm home anyway so why not. First day they were sanding it down which gave quite a bit of noise and also there was dust everywhere. They were done on Friday and it looks so much better now. It's not until i saw it that i really realised how much it was necessary that it got painted again.

Started doing some of the cleaning up from the mess the painters left behind (and some regular stuff that needed doing).

At work we got asked when we would feel comfortable to start working from the office again (well, not again in my case, but you get the point). At first i was like yeah, the sooner the better. Then i started reading the corona protocol they made. It's absolute madness. I'd have to wash my hands if i get a cup or coffee or even just leave the desk for anything. So now i'm in doubt. Especially since we got summer coming, meaning hot weather (starting next week). And i'm working here in a space that already is warm so it's probably gonna be unbearable to work here. I could move downstairs, which is cooler, but then i'd be sitting in the kitchen on a chair that's not made to sit all day on. So i guess the coming week will not be much fun.

And it seems like i may have new neighbours (again). I saw a small van and someone moving in some stuff into the house. It seemed like a crib or whatever you call it where you put a very small child in. So i'm less than enthousiastic. If i'm correct, I just hope it's old enough that it won't be screaming through the night.

OVG: More NW online.
 
RL: The rules for people shielding in the UK are to be relaxed from July 1. I haven't heard anything from work about this, so I remain furloughed for now. The UK is slowly returning to a previous state of normal, thanks to Boris, but I remain cynical. I will say I miss my D&D group.

D2: Still devastated that my Griffon's rolled ethereal. I made a Phoenix for the FireSorc to console myself. Some MP with Trim has cheered me up (he's a good dude like that), even if the drops were sub-par on our latest outing. The LiteSorc is at L95.8 with the Grail at -53.

OVG: New Minecraft patch dropped yesterday, so hopefully some MP with Pijus and Dune6836 if the Realms are working today.
 
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RL: RL had me busy the last week. I took days off to use up overtime which lead to after hours on the other days to get the work done that had to be done :rolleyes: children are more stubborn from day to day, I think lockdown conditions finally take their toll with them. Fortunately school has started again this Monday, at least every 2nd week, but only 3 hours a day, which leads to more stress for me because I have to bring and fetch my daughter while working...

D2: none today, but my random Amazon arrived at NM Council.

OVG: Finally grasped the gameplay of Terraria and instantly spent 8 hours one evening till 2 a.m.... Not good for work and lost some necessary sleep, but the game is addictive enough, it seems...
 
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@D2DC
What an interesting idea! I'm not a craftsman on land but a general principle when securing a boat is that you want some slack and the elasticity that comes with that, so the whole construction can resist wind and waves (for the treehouse more like wind and bending and growing trees) and still not lose too much of its function. If the construction depend on tightly pulled straps it does seem more likely to lose some of its function i a tree bends in strong winds or something like that, while suspending a platform from angled cables like in the photograph could roll with the movement to a higher degree.

As for how to arrange them I can only sort of repeat the advice; try to ensure all sides/parts are exposed to somewhat equal stress so no part runs the risk of being overloaded and break long before the others (or have that lead to harming the trees for that matter). Trying to take some weight off the smallest tree sounds sound in that regard. Can it be stabilized by securing it to the ground with a strap on the opposite side? Would that be worth the hassle, in order to open up new construction options for a suspended structure?

What kind of weather will the treehouse be dealing with, will you dismantle it when the winter is coming? What sort of stress can be expected from the elements during the time it stays up?
 
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It is an interesting mechanics problem. You need to seperate the three sets of forces:
- Vertical - Gravity pulling the trees down in compression (i.e. shearing them down the trunk)
- Horizontal - Tension trying to pull the trees in together. Maltatai's suggestion of an anchor rope sounds reasonable for the smaller tree. 35cm still seems pretty decent for a living tree though. It is still a long span though at 6m.
- Third type is the forces on however you fix to each tree - friction for bands, shear forces if you bolt it or something.

My suggestion: Make a smaller platform with the weight just taken by the two big trees - attach a horizontal beam on each side of the tree and build off that. The third tree would be used to anchor to as well, but just to resist the twisting forces. I would use pressure treated timber, construct it the same way as decking.

Most importantly: Try to find someone local who can see the site and the trees & has done something like this before.
 
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RL: Still WFH. They roped me, a data entry specialist, into assisting the inbound phone team because their employee numbers have dwindled and training hew hires is difficult during covid stuff. ...I hate it with a burning passion. There's a reason I'm not in the customer service industry, and if I wanted to be part of their phone team I would have applied for it. Sent them what I'd describe as a scathing yet well reasoned email trying to get out of it. The situation may change come next week, but I'm not holding my breath. Also, last update I got is that we're supposed to go back to the office July 6th. Meanwhile, Texas covid cases have surged in the last two weeks. I wonder if that'll adjust their timeline... but again. Not expecting them to make wise decisions. (EDIT: Just got word that they're delaying returning to the office until August. Imagine that... common sense winning out in this foolish corporation...)

D2: MP WSK runs with John Remedy, as is our custom. Around the time of my last update, in three consecutive sessions we found an A-Mesh & a Schaefers, a Jah, and then another A-Mesh. Two weeks later, there was pretty much nothing at all to report. Last night got us a Ravenlore, though, so maybe we're trending upward.

OVG: Not much at all. Haven't gone back to my replay of FFXV, which saddens me. Gave Warframe another go after a couple/few years, but I find it too complicated for its own good. I was more in the mood for a PvE MMO shooter (not that I'm big on MMOs to begin with), but I only play Warframe solo so it's not scratching the itch. I miss Firefall, rest in pieces. Been wanting to pick up DBZ Kakarot for a while, and it's been on sale on Steam. Still too expensive for me to justify breaking open my already thin wallet.
 
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The picture shows a 2x8 structure radiating from a central hub further reinforced by a structural welded and bolted steel handrail and you want to replace that with pallets that you somehow join together????? Please stop.

I'm not talking out my ass here. For 25 years, I owned a company that engineered and made very large illuminated signage on very tall posts....30 to 125 feet up.

Your kids will enjoy a regular playhouse built on the ground. It will be safer for her and easier for you to build.
 
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@Maltatai @maxicek - I think you guys are probably right. There needs to be some slack. If it were in complete tension, as soon as one tree moved, that support point would lose it's strength. Focusing on building between the two big trees would give a much stronger foundation. Those trees are 1m diameter, and at least 20m tall. I am only "attaching" 1-2m off the ground, so there should be almost no movement from those monsters.

Here is a new design that I think should be more stable based on your suggestions. The "platform" would only between to two larger trees, and not under total tension. The third tree would just be used to keep it from swaying in the wind. May even want a line on the far side as well.
Untitled.jpg

@superdave - I have some of these.. will they help? XD
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Seriously though, you're probably right. I don't have the time to get this tested and built. They are going to be back in the U.S. in a couple weeks! I am focusing on a typical playhouse on terra firma for now. The treehouse build may need to be further down the road. Need plenty of time to test each stage of the build.
 
@D2DC not saying it cant be done, but the forces in those lines attaching to the tree will be very large. I wouldn't want to mess with it without consulting an engineer.
 
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@D2DC not saying it cant be done, but the forces in those lines attaching to the tree will be very large. I wouldn't want to mess with it without consulting an engineer.
Yep, we used to pull cars out of the snow by attatching a line to a tree, and pushing the middle of the rope (perpendicular to the line of motion).
 
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RL: Had been planning on going "back to school" to get some training in Database related stuff... but have been hesitant (lazy?) due to uncertainty with how the school will be handling the public health situation. (It's partially online; can they do it entirely? Am I going to have to go to classes in a hazmat suit?) It's also a bit daunting to have to dig up transcripts and the like when I haven't even thought about them in almost 10 years. I've been out of commission for a while due to health related problems, and right now seems to be a difficult time to try and get started and accomplish new things.

D2: All I have on my computer are my 7 Untwinked Self Found chars (1 of each class), which I have recently gotten back into. I had a Frost Zealot at level 50, but got bored and wanted to progress, so I respec'd Hammerdin and am up to level 89 and have been in the LK for what seems like ages. I finally got some headway, making a CTA (+2 unfortunately) and have found an Ohm, Gul, Sur so far today. Unfortunately this build sucks to play without Enigma, so we're not going anywhere anytime soon. Only need 5 more Surs!

I have long wanted to build a powerful shapeshifting druid (prefereably werebear) but this is hard untwinked. My druid is 75 camped at NM Pindle with a Summon/Fire Elemental Hybrid build, as I have tried to avoid playing a Windy for the millionth time in my life. But if I ever want to get anywhere, I should probably just respec and get to questing/farming 😔

OVG: Noticed Steam Summer Sale yesterday and added some stuff to my wish list in consideration of buying it. Undertale for $3 seems worth just to see what it's all about since I never played it. There were also some deals on Visual Novel type games I might appreciate, like the Nonary Games. They have some deal where you get $5 back if you spend $30, so I was trying to find things to get me up to that point, but making decisions about games is hard. Especially when you just play D2 repeatedly.
 
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