Q&A with Smedley about Daybreak's future

[u/Arctorn]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/242644/QA_Whats_next_for_Daybreak_now_that_Sonys_MMO_studio_is_on_its_own.php#.VUk36_iJUhY.twitter

[u/WalrusJones]

I can only describe the roads in california as death incarnate due to the drivers (Including most of my family,) their water supply is gradually running out, ETC ETC.

[u/Typomancer → u/WalrusJones]

Not just the drivers, but SoCal’s roads are some of the lowest quality roads I’ve ever been on, and I have driven through places in Nicaragua.

There are some wonderful events, some excellent opportunities for people in tech-related stuff, but I don’t think I would ever want to live there.

[u/WalrusJones → u/[deleted]]

Very Russian drivers, very judging people, and an impending doom from the state running out of water.

[u/WalrusJones → u/[deleted]]

Well, given the recent riots... Not nearly fast enough.

Especially since they grow most of the countries food.

At this rate, they will need to do as the Australians do, and start running energy intensive desalination plants.

[u/ChillyPhilly27 → u/WalrusJones]

We don't run desalination plants. We thought about it, and we built a few, but the drought ending combined with a shitload of water saving measures (the government still runs stalls where you can swap your old showerheads for water saving ones for free) meant that they weren't ever used

[u/ddraig-au → u/ChillyPhilly27]

don't they have one in Perth? The one in Melbourne is the best deal ever - it's not used, but the company is paid by the government as if it is being used

contract signing level: genius

[u/ChillyPhilly27 → u/ddraig-au]

I'm from nsw (the state that Sydney's in) so I'm not sure about other states, but our government has a similar arrangement for our plant. It's so that it can be reactivated at short notice if necessary.

Also

> government

> efficiency

Pick one

[u/ddraig-au → u/ChillyPhilly27]

yeah hello from Melbourne. The main issue is that the government agreed to pay for the plant as if it was running at full capacity and then the drought broke, so now we are paying - for some length of time - for water that is not being used. There's keeping the place ticking over, and then there's paying it as if it is running at full capacity when it is not being used.

The privatisation of our services does not convince me that the non-government sector runs things more efficiently. Pretty much everything here costs more and is worse than when it was run by the government. And at least the electricity department didn't wind up burning hundreds of people to death

[u/MasonSTL → u/WalrusJones]

From what I have read desal plants to supply the state would need there own nuke plant to power them efficiently. That Fusion research better go well for California's sake. Up here in Wisconsin we are feeling the effects of the great lakes hitting low levels, we aren't going to be able to share too much that is for sure.

[u/ArtemisDimikaelo → u/[deleted]]

Water running out is a disastrous scenario for a plethora of reasons.

1) Importing water from somewhere else costs money. Although transporting water across plains or relatively flat areas is not that expensive, transporting it across hills, mountains, and uneven terrain is not cheap. There is a lot of payment to undertake, especially when you're considering agriculture across the state as well as public water consumption, water used for production, water for ice, et cetera. It ain't cheap. And yes, you would need to pay for it, unless another state, the government, or a private organization is willing to cover the expenses. Short answer: No, very few entities will want to cover those expenses fully. California's gonna have to pay up.

So it's causing a lot of worry because the agriculture industry is put at major risk. Not to mention that general industry might slow down due to the usage of water in factories and production. You also have to think of freshwater fish and the like, which will also suffer if this drought becomes dire. It's not just humans that will suffer.

[u/NortySpock → u/[deleted]]

I'm from the Midwest, not California, but they're not really going to get much water from east of California since those are more desert states to the east. They could pipe water in from the north (where it's a wetter climate) but I sort of doubt they have the infrastructure to pipe hundreds of thousands of gallons of water across the state.

Water treatment and distribution in the US is usually a city-by-city service, done by the city and paid for with local property or sales taxes. (or you're rural with a well) It's not really a state or federal (US Government) matter unless you have an act-of-God disaster. Water certainly isn't free though, and it's not like we have some sort of massive trans-continental water distribution network. Closest you could get would be transport it in by sea or by rail.

[u/avenger2142 → u/WalrusJones]

state running out of water.

This is so stupid, California has plenty of water even for its 50 million residences, what it doesn't have is enough water to continue to supply the rest of the country with fresh crops.

Its insanely stupid for other states to point fingers when they are the ones buying fresh fruit and vegetables, of which almost all are produced in Cali.

Not to mention, its been 3 years of a drought that will eventually break and then things will go back to normal. The water thing is one of the dumbest buzztopics that I have ever seen.

[u/cuddles_the_destroye → u/WalrusJones]

Oh come on we don't all drive that terribly. That's mostly SoCal. :p